| dc.description.abstract | Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in Brazil, was first described in 2015 and it overlapped with a significant increase in number of cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults and also in neurological malformation in infants, including microcephaly. The role of the immune response in protection and/or development of severe cases of infectionremain to be addressed. This proposal aims to evaluate both the innate and acquired immune response in patients with different clinical forms of the infection. Especially seeks to identify specific immune signatures to different clinical forms of the disease and, in addition, assess whether there are cross-reactivities to virus chikungunya and dengue (DENV). To this, a consortium gatheringclinical investigators (Department of Bahia State Health), virologists (Federal University of Bahia), immunologists (Fiocruz, Bahia) and molecular biologists and immunologists (Departement d'lmmunologie Hopitaux Universitaires Pitie- Salpetriere, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie - France) is being formed. The lymphocyte responses to ZIKV peptides and recombinant proteins as well as the innate immune cell responsesto the virus will be evaluated using different methodologies, including mass cytometry (CyTOF) that simultaneously analyzes up to 30 parameters in a single tube. Antibodies from ZIKV-infected individuals will be evaluated in relation to antigenic specificity, neutralizing capacity andcross-reactivity with DENV-4 and chikungunya virus antigens. The results of this project would contribute to the understanding of pathogenesis of the disease, in addition to the characterization of dominant immune response that will be important for the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and identification of potential drug targets. | en_US |
