PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Loraine Campanati AU - Luiza M. Higa AU - Rodrigo Delvecchio AU - Paula Pezzuto AU - Ana Luiza Valadão AU - Fábio L. Monteiro AU - Grasiella M. Ventura AU - Carla Veríssimo AU - Ana M. Bispo De Filippis AU - Renato S. Aguiar AU - Amilcar Tanuri TI - The Impact of African and Brazilian Zika virus isolates on neuroprogenitors AID - 10.1101/046599 DP - 2016 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 046599 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/20/046599.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/20/046599.full AB - In the last few months, an overwhelming number of people have been exposed to the Zika virus (ZIKV) in South and Central America. Here we showed, in vitro, that a Brazilian isolate impacts more severely murine neuronal progenitors and neurons than the African strain MR766. We found that the Brazilian isolate more pronouncedly inhibits neurite extension from neurospheres, alters their differentiation potential and causes neurons to have less and shorter processes. Comparing both lineages using a panel of inflammatory cytokines, we showed, with human neuroblastoma cells, that ZIKV induces the production of several inflammatory and chemotactic cytokines and once again, the Brazilian isolate had a more significant impact. Although much more needs to be studied regarding the association of ZIKV infection and brain damage during development, our study sheds some light into the differences between African and American lineages and the mechanisms by which the virus may be affecting neurogenesis.