OHSU researchers unravel mysteries of Zika virus

Oregon scientists have unlocked some of the mysteries of the Zika virus, tracking how it invades the body. The research by a team at Oregon Health & Science University is likely to help develop a vaccine against the virus, which has caused outbreaks in South America and Southeast Asia and also has turned up in Florida and Texas. The study was conducted on male and female rhesus macaque monkeys last year at OHSU's primate center in Beaverton. Scientists followed the virus as it spread from the bloodstream to other tissues. They found it attacked the central nervous system, reproductive and urinary tracts, muscles, joints and lymph nodes. They expected to find the virus in the lymph nodes based on what scientists know about similar viruses, but not in joints or muscles. But what surprised them the most, said Dan Streblow of OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, is that the virus persisted in tissue for at least five weeks, the length of the study for each animal. Typically, the Zika virus disappears from the bloodstream within six days.