title: ZIKA Virus and Neuroscience: the Need for a Translational Collaboration.
abstract: Zika virus (ZIKV) has become a major challenge for scientists and health agencies. ZIKV's involvement with human fetal microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome and its transmission through Aedes africanus and Aedes aegypti mosquitos highlighted the epidemiological and neurological risks associated to ZIKV infection. In 2013, ZIKV arrives in Brazil but the first outbreak in the country was reported in 2015. Here, we used the Web of Science as a search tool for comparing the evolution of world and Brazilian scientific research on dengue virus (DENV)-also present in mosquito-, ZIKV and microcephaly. The association between ZIKV and microcephaly was only evidenced in 2015. Interestingly, Brazil and the USA are the responsible for most of these reports. Furthermore, the level of double-counted articles indicates a high degree of international collaborative effort in studying ZIKV and microcephaly. The ZIKV research clearly requires multidisciplinary expertise including epidemiologic, clinical, virological, and neurochemical backgrounds. This letter intends to emphasize the need of multidisciplinary studies and put forward some as yet unanswered questions in attempting to contribute to the understanding of this multifaceted health problem. In line with this, we recently constituted a collaborative and multidisciplinary taskforce encompassing eight Brazilian scientific institutions of excellence, The ZIKV translational research taskforce. This taskforce comprises a vast international network of collaborators and welcomes additional collaborators. We intend to advance fast in terms of mechanisms, which can potentially contribute to treat or halt ZIKV spreading around the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lavínia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schuler-Faccini
authors.affiliation: Microbiology, Immunobiology and Parasitology, Laboratory of Virology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roehe
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, ICBS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2600 Ramiro Barcelos St, Santana, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035003, Brazil.|Brain Institute (BraIns) of Rio Grande do Sul, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eduardo R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Zimmer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, ICBS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2600 Ramiro Barcelos St, Santana, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035003, Brazil.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quincozes-Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, ICBS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2600 Ramiro Barcelos St, Santana, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035003, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adriano M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: de Assis
authors.affiliation: Embryology and Cell Differentiation Laboratory, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Elizabeth Obino Cirne
authors.initials: EOC
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.affiliation: Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre and Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology, Centre of Biotechnology, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jorge Almeida
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Guimarães
authors.affiliation: International Center for Equity in Health, Post-Graduation Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Rua Marechal Deodoro, Pelotas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cesar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Victora
authors.affiliation: Instituto Estadual do Cérebro Paulo Niemeyer, Secretaria Estadual de Saúde do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vivaldo Moura
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Neto
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, ICBS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2600 Ramiro Barcelos St, Santana, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035003, Brazil. diogo@ufrgs.br.
authors.forename: Diogo O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Souza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D009488:Neurosciences; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D000071244:Zika Virus; D000071243:Zika Virus Infection
keywords: Brazil; Microcephaly; Translational research; ZIKV