A Zika virus mutation leads to increased neurovirulence In 2015, Zika virus (ZIKV) became headline news after its association with fetal microcephaly (severely reduced head circumference) in Brazil and was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1). However, ZIKV was not new, it was first isolated from the Zika forest, Uganda in 1947 (2). ZIKV incited little interest compared to other flaviviruses, such as dengue virus (DENV), as it was not thought to cause severe disease. ZIKV infections were largely sporadic, and symptoms were usually mild and flu-like, with self-limiting fever, rash, and conjunctivitis. Around 80% of cases were asymptomatic, and epidemic activity had not been described (3). In 2007, large-scale explosive outbreaks of ZIKV infection were described in Micronesia, and the virus spread across the Pacific, reaching South America in 2015, where it rapidly spread through Brazil and neighboring countries (3–5). On page 933 of this issue, Yuan et al. (6) compared sequences of contemporary ZIKV strains with ancestral ZIKV isolates and describe a mutation that increases the neurovirulence of contemporary strains, which they propose underscores the increased pathogenicity of recent outbreaks.

中文翻译：

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神经毒性寨卡病毒的进化

寨卡病毒突变导致神经毒力增加 2015 年，寨卡病毒 (ZIKV) 在巴西与胎儿小头畸形（头围严重缩小）相关后成为头条新闻，并被世界卫生组织 (WHO) 宣布为突发公共卫生事件 (1 ）。然而，寨卡病毒并不新鲜，它于 1947 年首次从乌干达寨卡森林中分离出来 (2)。与登革热病毒 (DENV) 等其他黄病毒相比，ZIKV 引起的兴趣不大，因为人们认为它不会引起严重疾病。ZIKV 感染主要是散发性的，症状通常轻微且类似流感，伴有自限性发热、皮疹和结膜炎。大约 80% 的病例没有症状，并且没有描述流行活动 (3)。2007 年，密克罗尼西亚爆发了大规模的 ZIKV 感染爆发，2015 年，该病毒传播到太平洋，到达南美洲，并迅速传播到巴西和邻国 (3-5)。在本期第 933 页，Yuan 等人。(6) 将当代 ZIKV 菌株的序列与祖传 ZIKV 分离株进行了比较，并描述了一种增加当代菌株神经毒力的突变，他们提出的这一突变强调了近期爆发的致病性增加。