The threat of severe birth defects in newborns is one of the main reasons health officials around the world are working at a feverish pace to fight the spread of the Zika virus. Though the virus would potentially affect a small portion of all pregnancies, the research cannot come fast enough.

Now Yale University researchers are hopeful the results they’re seeing in an ongoing study may yield new strategies to prevent the infection of unborn babies.

Poor birth outcomes reportedly include absent or poorly formed brain structures, abnormal eye development, or other problems resulting from damage to the brain.

A team of researchers, led by senior author Erol Fikrig, M.D., have been using cells from human placentas to look at how the Zika virus may be transmitted from expectant mother to fetus, resulting in infection of the fetal brain.

While the link from Zika virus to microcephaly — a birth defect affecting the heads and brains of infants born to infected mothers — has already been made, little is understood about how the virus crosses the maternal-fetal barrier, the layer of cells that serves as a filter to protect the fetus from harmful substances.

The team used three different strains of Zika virus to infect three types of cells found in placental tissue. The cells types — known as Hofbauer cells, cytotrophoblasts, and fibroblasts — were obtained from normal term pregnancies.

They found that Hofbauer cells and fibroblasts were susceptible to infection by Zika virus in isolated cultures. They also observed infection of Hofbauer cells within whole placental tissue.

“These placenta-specific cells could potentially serve as a reservoir for Zika virus production within the fetal compartment,” said Kellie Ann Jurado, a postdoctoral fellow, in a statement.

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The researchers also said the Hofbauer cells, believed to migrate around the placenta, may aid in the delivery of the virus to the fetal brain. The findings further the understanding of Zika virus infection and potential routes of viral production and circulation within the placenta, said Jurado.

As of Aug. 4, there were 16 newborn infants with possible Zika-related birth defects in the U.S. and one in a U.S. territory, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been six total Zika-related pregnancy losses in both the U.S. and the U.S. territories in that same time frame.

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The poor birth outcomes reported “include those that have been detected in infants infected with Zika before or during birth, including microcephaly, calcium deposits in the brain indicating possible brain damage, excess fluid in the brain cavities and surrounding the brain, absent or poorly formed brain structures, abnormal eye development, or other problems resulting from damage to [the] brain that affects nerves, muscles and bones, such as club foot or inflexible joints, and confirmed hearing loss.”

While concerns over the Zika virus have been directed at pregnant women, other research in mice from scientists at Rockefeller University and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology suggests certain adult brain cells may be vulnerable to infection as well.

“Based on our findings, getting infected with Zika as an adult may not be as innocuous as people think,” said one researcher.

“This is the first study looking at the effect of Zika infection on the adult brain,” Joseph Gleeson, adjunct professor at Rockefeller and head of the laboratory of pediatric brain disease, said in a statement on RU’s website. “Based on our findings, getting infected with Zika as an adult may not be as innocuous as people think.”

Cells that appear vulnerable to infection in adults include those typically lost or damaged throughout adulthood, as well as those thought to be critical to learning and memory.

More research is needed, the team stated, to determine if the damage has long-term biological implications or the potential to affect behavior. The new findings were published in Cell Stem Cell on Aug. 18.

As a reminder that all of us — not just pregnant women — need to take Zika seriously, Dr. David Gortler, a former assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine and now a pharmacology expert with FormerFDA.com, says that if this virus attacks the neurons in brains of fetuses, it would similarly attack the neurons in brains of adults.

“Both brains contain the same or similar types of cells. Some viruses, like Zika, are specifically programmed to specifically attack neurons,” he said.

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“Any disease spread by mosquitoes has the potential to be just as devastating as malaria, especially in these hot, wet monsoon months when mosquitoes have the ability to replicate logarithmically,” Gortler told LifeZette.