Finding ways to cure memory loss caused by West Nile virus infection

The defense mechanism of the brain of people infected with West Nile virus (WNV) to prevent the development of this virus has become a barrier to restoring the brain when the patient has recovered.

US scientists have recently found a way to explain dementia after WNV infection , as well as a cure for the disease.

The study, published in the journal Nature Immunology of the University of Washington, suggests that mice infected with WNV produce fewer neurons and more astrocytes than uninfected mice, meaning that they damage the brain. recoverable.

West Nile virus spreads by mosquitoes.

Conventional astrocytes provide nutrition to nerve cells, but when formed during WNV infection, these cells act as immune cells, producing an inflammatory protein called IL. -1 to combat virus invasion.

However, after the mice were expired from WNV, IL-1 continued to be produced to interfere with the formation of new neurons. This affects the memory of mice due to the lack of new neurons, the brain does not repair the damage during the infection period.

To find a cure for this sequelae, the medical professor at Washington University School of Medicine, Robyn Klein and the team divided mice into two groups, one of them injected with WNV and the other injected saline.

Ten days later, for each of these groups of mice, the scientists were divided into two for treatment with placebo or anakinra, a US-licensed arthritis drug that could hinder IL-1.

After restoring the mice for a month, the team examined the ability to recognize and remember the lab rats by placing them in the labyrinth. Mice infected with WNV and treated with placebo took longer to learn about labyrinths than did saline mice.

Meanwhile, mice infected with viruses and treated with IL-1 blockers were able to quickly learn the same saline mice. This study shows that it is possible to prevent IL-1 from affecting mouse memory.

Most patients infected with WNV have no symptoms. Only about a fifth of people infected with this virus have fever and other symptoms, but some patients may be seriously ill, even fatal.

Most patients infected with WNV have no symptoms.

In addition, patients after recovery often still suffer from permanent neurological problems such as disability, poor health, difficulty walking and memory loss. These problems not only last longer but also worse over time.

Spread by mosquitoes , WNV has antigen relations with Japanese encephalitis virus , common in most countries in Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East, West Asia, Oceania and North America. The epidemic often appears as a small-scale dispersal or outbreak in an area.

However, in recent years, the epidemic tends to spread to many regions in the world, the number of cases in each epidemic tends to increase, the rate of severe cases with encephalitis also increases.