(Press-News.org) DETROIT — A Wayne State University study published in the Oct. 3, 2025, issue of Nature Communications revealed that Zika virus exposure during pregnancy causes long-term, sex-specific changes to a baby’s immune system, particularly affecting the frontline immune cells that fight infection.
The study, “Prenatal exposure to Zika virus shapes offspring neutrophil function in a sex-specific manner,” was led by Dr. Jiahui Ding, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in Wayne State’s School of Medicine.
“We discovered that when a pregnant mother is infected with Zika virus, the resulting inflammatory response in the placenta permanently changes how the offspring’s immune system develops,” said Ding. “This occurs even if the infection is mild or asymptomatic in the mother and does not lead to obvious congenital birth defects in the offspring.”
Ding and her research team discovered that male offspring are more affected by Zika infection during pregnancy; when exposed to the Zika virus in the womb, they exhibited slower growth compared to control males. In addition, they showed an overly exaggerated and delayed inflammatory response when later challenged with a simulated bacterial infection. This finding suggests male offspring are at a higher risk for chronic inflammation and tissue damage later in life if they were exposed to the Zika virus before birth.
The research team also identified a sex-specific effect linked to how the placenta responded to the virus. Male placentas showed a stronger activation of immune-related signaling pathways (like IFN-β and IL-1β), whereas the female placenta showed more metabolic adaptations. In their mouse model, the virus did not reach the fetus. Instead, it was the placenta’s immune response that had the major effect on the developing offspring.
The function of neutrophils — the most critical "first responder" cells of the innate immune system — is compromised in Zika virus-exposed offspring of both sexes. The neutrophils showed a reduced reactive oxygen species production, which indicates being less effective at generating the necessary toxic chemicals required to kill the virus pathogens. The team also discovered a defective Neutrophil Extraceullar Trap (NET) formation that created an impaired ability to form the NET web-like structures used to capture and invade germs — a process called NETosis.
The team also pinpointed a protein called A20 (Tnfaip3) as a crucial sex-dimorphic regulator of neutrophil activation and survival. The upregulation of A20 specifically in male neutrophils after Zika virus exposure likely contributes to their dampened inflammatory response in vitro and helps promote neutrophil survival.
“Our research showed that prenatal exposure to Zika virus can increase a child’s susceptibility to infections and inflammatory diseases later in life compared to children who were not exposed to the virus,” said Ding. “Our research shows that even children exposed to Zika virus before birth who appear healthy may have altered immune defenses that require long-term monitoring. While we focused on Zika, these findings may also apply to other viral infections, such as COVID-19, highlighting the importance of monitoring and supporting the immune system of virus-exposed children. In addition, our results underscore the ongoing need to prevent viral transmission, particularly in high-risk areas and among pregnant women.”
Other Wayne State University researchers involved in the study include Anna Hu, Annie Thy Nguyen, Grace M. Swanson, Aditi Singh, Nicholas Adzibolosu, Diana Manchorova, Elizabeth Findeis, Anthony Maxwell, Yuan He, Marta Rodriguez Garcia, and Gil Mor.
Funding for the study was provided by NIH grants R01AI145829-05 (GM), P42ES030991 (GM Project 4), R01HD111146 (GM) and R00ES028734 (MP).
To read the full paper, visit https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63941-x.
# # #
Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.
END
Wayne State research reveals fetuses exposed to Zika virus have long-term immune challenges
2025-10-03
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Researchers deconstruct chikungunya outbreaks to improve prediction and vaccine development
2025-10-03
The symptoms come on quickly — acute fever, followed by debilitating joint pain that can last for months. Though rarely fatal, the chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne illness, can be particularly severe for high-risk individuals, including newborns and older adults.
While the virus is common in tropical and subtropical regions, including Asia, Africa and South America, public health officials have been tracking reported infections in Europe and, in September, a confirmed case in Long Island, New York.
Outbreaks ...
Study finds one-year change on CT scans linked to future outcomes in fibrotic lung disease
2025-10-03
DENVER (Oct 1, 2025) Researchers at National Jewish Health have shown that subtle increases in lung scarring, detected by an artificial intelligence-based tool on CT scans taken one year apart, are associated with disease progression and survival in patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease. The findings, recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, suggest that computer-based image analysis may provide an earlier, more objective way to identify patients at highest risk for worsening disease.
“We ...
Discovery of a novel intracellular trafficking pathway in plant cells
2025-10-03
Just like in yeast and animal cells, vacuoles in plants are responsible for breaking down unwanted cellular components. At the same time, vacuoles in seeds also serve the opposite role -storing large amounts of proteins that provide energy during germination. These storage proteins, accumulated in the vacuoles of seeds such as beans and wheat, are not only vital for plant growth but also represent an important agricultural resource closely tied to our daily diet.
Until now, it was entirely unknown whether proteins could be transported from the vacuole to other organelles. In a study now published ...
New tool helps forecast volcano slope collapses and tsunamis
2025-10-03
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For people living near volcanoes, danger goes well beyond lava flows and clouds of ash. Some explosive eruptions can lead to dramatic collapses of the sides of a volcano, like those at Mount St. Helens, Washington, and Anak Krakatau, Indonesia. The latter triggered tsunamis blamed for most deaths from its historic eruptions in 1883.
But the science and exact triggers behind such catastrophes remain largely unknown. To help scientists forecast collapse of volcano sides, also known as flanks or ...
Molecular coating cleans up noisy quantum light
2025-10-03
Quantum technologies demand perfection: one photon at a time, every time, all with the same energy. Even tiny deviations in the number or energy of photons can derail devices, threatening the performance of quantum computers that someday could make up a quantum internet.
While this level of precision is difficult to achieve, Northwestern University engineers have developed a novel strategy that makes quantum light sources, which dispense single photons, more consistent, precise and reliable.
In a new study, the team coated an atomically thin semiconductor (tungsten diselenide) with a sheetlike organic molecule called PTCDA. The coating transformed ...
From Parkinson's to rare diseases, discovered a key switch for cellular health
2025-10-03
A key switch for cellular energy balance has been discovered in cells: it could potentially become the target of new therapies for diseases ranging from Parkinson's to rare disorders caused by defects in the cell's powerhouses, the mitochondria. The switch is called phosphatase B55 (PP2A-B55alpha) and regulates the balance of mitochondria. Experts from Università Cattolica, Rome campus, and Roma Tre Universty have observed that, by reducing its activity, it’s possible to attenuate the motor symptoms of Parkinson's in a preclinical model of the disease.
This is ...
Tiny sugars in the brain disrupt emotional circuits, fueling depression
2025-10-03
Depression is a serious disorder that disrupts daily life through lethargy, sleep disturbance, and social withdrawal, and also increases the risk of suicide. The number of depression patients has steadily increased over the years, affecting more than 280 million people worldwide as of 2025. Now, researchers have uncovered a new pathological mechanism that could provide clues for the diagnosis and treatment of depression.
A research team led by C. Justin LEE and LEE Boyoung at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has identified a new molecular pathway in the brain that directly links abnormal sugar modifications on proteins to depressive behaviors. Specifically, ...
Mini-organs reveal how the cervix defends itself
2025-10-03
Cervical epithelial cells are far from passive bystanders in the body’s immune system. New research shows they actually play an active and highly coordinated role in detecting and fighting infections. That’s the conclusion of an international research team led by Associate Professor Cindrilla Chumduri from Aarhus University, and now published in the journal Science Advances.
Using patient-derived 3D mini-organs, so-called organoids, and single-cell mapping technologies, the team has, for the first time, shown how distinct epithelial cell types in the cervix ...
Africa, climate, and food: How to feed a continent without increasing its carbon footprint
2025-10-03
Africa’s agrifood system emits nearly 2.9 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent every year—more than a quarter of global sector emissions. An international study compares Africa’s trajectory with China’s and proposes concrete solutions—from water management in rice paddies to modernizing logistics chains—to produce more food without worsening the climate. These analyses were conducted by researchers Xia Li, Yumei Zhang, Shenggen Fan (China Agricultural University) and Issa Ouedraogo (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT)
A ...
Researchers demonstrates substrate design principles for scalable superconducting quantum materials
2025-10-03
Silicides — alloys of silicon and metals long used in microelectronics — are now being explored again for quantum hardware. But their use faces a critical challenge: achieving phase purity, since some silicide phases are superconducting while others are not.
The study, published in Applied Physics Letters by NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Brookhaven National Laboratory, shows how substrate choice influences phase formation and interfacial stability in superconducting vanadium silicide films, providing design guidelines for improving material quality.
The team, led by NYU Tandon professor Davood Shahrjerdi, focused on vanadium silicide, ...