Long-term alterations in brain and behavior after postnatal Zika virus infections in infant macaques

Considering the impact that Zika virus(ZIKV) infection has on the fetal nervous system and given that the postnatal period is also a time of rapid brain growth, it is important to understand the potential neurobehavioral consequences of ZIKV infection during infancy. Using a rhesus macaque(RM) model, we showed that postnatal ZIKV infection resulted in long-term behavioral changes, including increased emotional reactivity, decreased social contact, loss of balance, and deficits in visual recognition memoryat one year of age. Structural and functional MRI showed that ZIKV-infected infant RMs had persistent enlargement of lateral ventricles, smaller volumes and altered functional connectivity between brain areas important for socioemotional behavior and cognitive function (e.g. amygdala, hippocampus, cerebellum). Neuropathological changes corresponded with neuroimaging results and were consistent with the behavioral and memory deficits. Overall, this study demonstrates that postnatal ZIKV infection of infants in this model has long lasting neurodevelopmental consequences.