Zika virus damages placenta, kills fetal mice

NIH-funded scientists detail tissue destruction caused by Zika virus during pregnancy. Zika virus infects and crosses the placentas of pregnant mice and causes severe damage or death in fetal mice, report scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health. Investigators from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed two mouse models of Zika infection in pregnancy that will enable rapid testing of experimental Zika drugs to prevent congenital abnormalities, and may aid in better understanding how the virus affects pregnant women. The team, led by Michael S. Diamond, M.D., Ph.D., created two ways to model Zika infection in pregnancy. One system used female mice genetically engineered to lack the ability to mount a specific immune response, which made them susceptible to Zika virus infection. When these pregnant mice were exposed to Zika, the virus killed most fetuses within a week. The fetal mice that survived showed significant abnormalities, such as...