Suelen Silva Gomes Dias, Tamires Cunha-Fernandes, Luciana Souza-Moreira, Vinicius Cardoso Soares, Giselle Barbosa Lima, Isaclaudia G Azevedo-Quintanilha, Julia Santos, Filipe Pereira-Dutra, Caroline Freitas, Patricia A Reis, Stevens Kastrup Rehen, Fernando A Bozza, Thiago M Lopes Souza, Cecilia J G de Almeida, Patricia T Bozza
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is a global public health concern linked to adult neurological disorders and congenital diseases in newborns. Host lipid metabolism, including lipid droplet (LD) biogenesis, has been associated with viral replication and pathogenesis of different viruses. However, the mechanisms of LD formation and their roles in ZIKV infection in neural cells are still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that ZIKV regulates the expression of pathways associated with lipid metabolism, including the upregulation and activation of lipogenesis-associated transcription factors and decreased expression of lipolysis-associated proteins, leading to significant LD accumulation in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells and in neural stem cells (NSCs)...
March 8, 2023: Journal of Neuroinflammation