Podcast: How Zika virus causes microcephaly
Pankaj Seth of National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) explains how he and his team identified the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which Zika virus causes microcephaly. They found the envelop protein of the virus was responsible for arresting the proliferation of human foetal neural stem cells and for killing the cells that were becoming neuron-like. The combined effect reduces the pool of foetal brain cells leading to smaller size of the brain.
