Microcephaly and arthrogryposis multiplex congenita: The full-blown CNS spectrum in newborns with ZIKV infection

Abstract

The recent alarming statements concerning the newborn ZIKV-induced microcephaly epidemics in the Northeast of Brazil, released by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, as well as important international health agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, raised many “why and how” questions so far, that will hopefully be scientifically answered, as more researches in that regard come up in the long term. In this paper, we describe another potentially ZIKV-induced central nervous system and musculoskeletal disorder that has accompanied microcephaly in these children: atrhogryposis multiplex congenita. The goal is to bring up some hypotheses for possible underlying molecular mechanisms based on published data taken from animal models, such as ovine and cattle, which once infected by other types of arboviroses and viruses that also belong to the Flaviviridae family, presented, too, with the full-blown CNS spectrum of malformations at birth.