Most people who were infected with Zika virus recovered. But the babies of pregnant women who were infected were sometimes left with serious effects of the virus.
A new study, published in Cell by researchers led by a team at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York-Presbyterian and the National Institutes of Health, has shown some surprising results.
Antibodies from pregnant women who contracted Zika but did not pass it along to their fetuses, were used to successfully protect mice from the virus. In fact, the virus was undetectable in the blood of the mice.
Blood samples were taken from patients in Brazil during the 2015 Zika outbreak in the country. Researchers studied the samples and discovered that infected pregnant women who did not pass Zika on to their fetuses had an antibody named DH1017.IgM.
The antibody DH1017.IgM has the ability to attach to multiple virus particles at the same time.
Scientists now believe the DH1017.IgM antibody could be used both therapeutically and as a preventative measure for high risk individuals during an outbreak of Zika virus.
Researchers from Takeda pharmaceuticals and separately a team from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research are working on vaccines that use inactivated Zika virus.