A Chinese study led by scientists at Nanjing University is the first to show that modified small extracellular vesicles can cross the placenta and blood-brain barrier to target drug delivery in mice infected with the Zika virus, in which they were shown to significantly reduce fetal neurological damage, including microcephaly.

A multi-omics analysis led by Chinese scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing has demonstrated that aberrant metabolism of the co-enzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) was responsible for microcephaly induced by Zika virus infection during pregnancy.

A study led by Chinese virologists at Southern Medical University (SMU) and Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU) in Guangzhou has discovered that neural progenitor cell pyroptosis contributes to Zika virus (ZIKV)-induced microcephaly and represents a novel therapeutic target.