Zika Virus Targets Human Cortical Neural Precursors and Attenuates Their Growth

The suspected link between infection by Zika virus (ZIKV), a re-emerging flavivirus, and microcephaly, is an urgent global health concern. The direct target cells of ZIKV in developing human fetuses are not clear. Here we show that ZIKV serially passaged in monkey and mosquito cell lines infects human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)-derived cortical neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) with much higher efficiency compared to hiPSCs and hNPC-derived immature cortical neurons. Infected hNPCs produces infectious ZIKV particles. Importantly, ZIKV infection increases cell death and dysregulates cell cycle progression, resulted in attenuated hNPC growth. RNA-sequencing analysis of infected hNPCs further reveals transcriptional dysregulation, notably genes in cell cycle pathways. Our results identify human cortical neural precursors as a major and direct target of ZIKV infection and establish a tractable experimental model system to investigate the impact and mechanism of ZIKV on human brain development and a platform to screen therapeutic compounds. Overall design: The suspected link between Zika virus infection and microcephaly is an urgent global health concern. Tang et al. report that Zika virus directly infects human cortical precursor cells with high efficiency, resulting in stunted growth and transcriptional dysregulation.