Frequent first-trimester pregnancy loss in rhesus macaques infected with African-lineage Zika virus

Rosinski, J. R.; Raasch, L. E.; Barros Tiburcio, P.; Breitbach, M. E.; Shepherd, P. M.; Yamamoto, K.; Razo, E.; Krabbe, N. P.; Bliss, M. I.; Richardson, A. D.; Einwalter, M. A.; Weiler, A. M.; Sneed, E. L.; Fuchs, K. B.; Zeng, X.; Noguchi, K. K.; Morgan, T. K.; Alberts, A. J.; Antony, K. M.; Spanton, R. V.; Kabakov, S.; Ausderau, K. K.; Bohm, E. K.; Pritchard, J. C.; Ver Hoeve, J.; Kim, C.; Nork, T. M.; Katz, A. W.; Rasmussen, C. A.; Hartman, A.; Mejia, A.; Basu, P.; Simmons, H. A.; Eickhoff, J. C.; Friedrich, T. C.; Aliota, M. T.; Mohr, E. L.; Dudley, D. M.; O'Connor, D. H.; N

doi:10.1101/2022.12.09.519791

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.12.09.519791

Frequent first-trimester pregnancy loss in rhesus macaques infected with African-lineage Zika virus

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Abstract

In the 2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) pandemic, a previously unrecognized risk of birth defects surfaced in babies whose mothers were infected with Asian-lineage ZIKV during pregnancy. Less is known about the impacts of gestational African-lineage ZIKV infections. Given high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) burdens in regions where African-lineage ZIKV circulates, we evaluated whether pregnant rhesus macaques infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) have a higher risk of African-lineage ZIKV-associated birth defects. Remarkably, in both SIV+ and SIV-animals, ZIKV infection early in the first trimester caused a high incidence (78%) of spontaneous pregnancy loss within 20 days. These findings suggest a significant risk for early pregnancy loss associated with African-lineage ZIKV infection and provide the first consistent ZIKV-associated phenotype in macaques for testing medical countermeasures.

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Rosinski, J. R., Raasch, L. E., Barros Tiburcio, P., Breitbach, M. E., Shepherd, P. M., Yamamoto, K., Razo, E., Krabbe, N. P., Bliss, M. I., Richardson, A. D., Einwalter, M. A., Weiler, A. M., Sneed, E. L., Fuchs, K. B., Zeng, X., Noguchi, K. K., Morgan, T. K., Alberts, A. J., Antony, K. M., Spanton, R. V., Kabakov, S., Ausderau, K. K., Bohm, E. K., Pritchard, J. C., Ver Hoeve, J., Kim, C., Nork, T. M., Katz, A. W., Rasmussen, C. A., Hartman, A., Mejia, A., Basu, P., Simmons, H. A., Eickhoff, J. C., Friedrich, T. C., Aliota, M. T., Mohr, E. L., Dudley, D. M., O'Connor, D. H., N. 2022-12-09. Frequent first-trimester pregnancy loss in rhesus macaques infected with African-lineage Zika virus. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.09.519791

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