A short review on the phenotypic, genotypic and immunological developments for Zika virus

Abstract

Zika Virus (ZIKV) has recently received much attention right after the outbreak in America. Initially ZIKV was not considered a dangerous flavivirus as the infections were asymptomatic with only mild complications. But, it became a grave public health concern, when a strong association of ZIKV was proven with various neurological disorders, like for children it was found to cause hereditary deformities and for adults it resulted in Guillain-Barre syndrome. Since then researches and developers are conducting various studies to gain knowledge about the virus for development of safe and effective therapeutic strategy. Considering all ZIKV transmission methods, the transfer of ZIKV from infected pregnant mother to fetus have positioned licensing of an effective vaccination against ZIKV at forefront. Even if there is no approved vaccination yet, various platforms are working with many types of vaccination strategies are progressing at a high rate. Currently, there are many possible candidates in the pipeline of ZIKV vaccines. DNA vaccine candidates has progressed to clinical phase II studies and many vaccine types including mRNA, PIV, LAV, vectored vaccines are exhibiting promising data in both preclinical and clinical studies. Nevertheless, there is still many knowledge gap and challenges which are needed to overcome in the coming years for the successful licensure of ZIKV vaccines. This review article highlights on the structural importance of the virus, defense mechanism of host towards the virus and the up-to-date condition of vaccination development and challenges in the context of ZIKV.