Study casts new light on evolution, spread of Zika virus

A team of scientists led by Dr. Massimo Ciccozzi from the University Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, Italy, has modeled the evolutionary development and diversity of Zika virus to understand how infection spreads between populations and how the virus reacts with the immune system. This virus is the last of the long list of emerging flaviviruses that have recently received global attention due to the outbreak in Brazil and the rapid spread in several countries after the first detection there in May 2015 . “Understanding the differences and similarities between Zika and other flaviviruses, such as the dengue fever and chikungunya viruses, is essential if effective drugs, vaccines and Zika-specific immunological tests for large population screening are to be designed,” Dr. Angeletti and co-authors said. They carried out evolutionary analysis of Zika virus combined with homology (shared ancestry) modeling and T- and B-cells epitope prediction, which aims to determine how immune system responses cause...