Zika Virus Infection Seems to Impact Overall Survival in Operated Glioblastoma Patients Submitted to Stupp Protocol

Background: Zika virus is a flavivirus endemic in tropical areas and transmitted by aedes mosquitoes. Its infection causes acute feverish state, and may predispose to neurological diseases, such as Guillain-Barré polyradiculoneuritis and congenital malformations, mainly microcephaly. Recently, it was discovered in-vitro oncolytic activity of Zika virus against Glioblastoma stem cells, however no clinical in-vivo profile has ever been reported.

Patients and Methods: In a universe of 79 Glioblastoma patients operated at the last decade by the senior author ASAJ, also submitted to conventional quimio-radiation (Stupp protocol), we identified 4 patients with overall long-term survival. Among then, surprisingly, 3 patients were previously infected with the virus.

Results: Comparison of overall survival between Glioblastoma patients regarding Zika infection clearly favored the group of patients with concomitant Zika virus infection (109.3 vs 16.7 months, p = 0.038), as shown visually by the Kaplan-Meier curve.

Conclusion: This is the first report to supose some sort of protection warranted by the Zika virus in patients with malignant gliomas, regarding overall survival. However, it seems unreasonable to propose viroteraphy with Zika virus, since it may have others neurological manifestations. Nevertheless, it ratifies the marvelous potential of this virus as a vector to gene therapy and future target therapy to Glioblastomas.