Obesity Induces an Impaired Placental Antiviral Immune Response in Pregnant Women Infected with Zika Virus.
Anna Cláudia Calvielli Castelo BrancoEmily Araujo De OliveiraNátalli Zanete PereiraRicardo Wesley Alberca CustódioAmaro Nunes Duarte-NetoLuiz Fernando Ferraz da SilvaFernanda Guedes LuizNaiura Vieira PereiraMirian Nacagami SottoNaiara Naiana DejaniPatrícia Helen de Carvalho RondóElyzabeth Avvad-PortariZilton Farias Meira de VasconcelosAlberto José da Silva DuarteTamiris Azamor da Costa BarrosMaria Notomi SatoPublished in: Viruses (2023)
Obesity is increasing in incidence worldwide, especially in women, which can affect the outcome of pregnancy. During this period, viral infections represent a risk to the mother, the placental unit, and the fetus. The Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in Brazil has been the cause of congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), with devastating consequences such as microcephaly in newborns. Herein, we analyzed the impact of maternal overweight/obesity on the antiviral factors' expression in the placental tissue of Zika-infected mothers. We accessed placentas from women with and without obesity from 34 public health units (São Paulo) and from Zika-infected mothers with and without obesity from the Clinical Cohort Study of ZIKV pregnant women (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). We first verified that obesity, without infection, did not alter the constitutive transcriptional expression of antiviral factors or IFN type I/III expression. Interestingly, obesity, when associated with ZIKV infection, showed a decreased transcriptional expression of RIG-I and IFIH1 (MDA-5 protein precursor gene). At the protein level, we also verified a decreased RIG-I and IRF-3 expression in the decidual placenta from the Zika-infected obese group, regardless of microcephaly. This finding shows, for the first time, that obesity associated with ZIKV infection leads to an impaired type I IFN downstream signaling pathway in the maternal-fetal interface.
Keyphrases
- zika virus
- weight loss
- insulin resistance
- metabolic syndrome
- dengue virus
- pregnant women
- weight gain
- aedes aegypti
- high fat diet induced
- type diabetes
- poor prognosis
- immune response
- public health
- signaling pathway
- adipose tissue
- pregnancy outcomes
- bariatric surgery
- dendritic cells
- gene expression
- birth weight
- body mass index
- transcription factor
- amino acid
- epithelial mesenchymal transition
- oxidative stress
- physical activity
- toll like receptor
- long non coding rna
- case report
- copy number
- induced apoptosis