[Comment] Zika epidemic: a step towards understanding the infectious causes of microcephaly?

Congenital and perinatal neuropathology falls within two main phenotypes: primary microcephaly, a primarily grey matter disease observable at birth that is caused by defects in cell proliferation, axon guidance, or increased apoptosis; and secondary microcephaly, a grey matter or white matter disease of postnatal onset, caused by either a reduction in dendrites and synaptic connections, or defects in myelination, or even both mechanisms acting in concert (appendix).1,2 In this issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Delan Devakumar and colleagues3 have seized on the opportunity of advances in Zika virus-related primary microcephaly to review the major infectious causes of microcephaly.
Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Comment Source Type: research