2016年10月31日，国际学术权威刊物自然出版集团《Nature》杂志在线发表了美国圣路易斯华盛顿大学Michael S. Diamond教授和Kelle H. Moley研究员合作的一篇研究论文，研究表明寨卡病毒感染可能对男性也有很大危害，会严重干扰其生育能力。

Kelle Moley教授及其同事指出，寨卡病毒能够靶标雄性生殖系统。感染寨卡三周之后，雄性小鼠会出现睾丸缩小、性激素水平降低、生育力减弱。这些小鼠令雌性小鼠受孕的机率也会大大降低。

此前有研究显示，寨卡病毒可以在男性精子中持续存在好几个月。研究人员将寨卡病毒注射到雄性小鼠体内，一周后这些病毒移动到睾丸并引发炎症。在两周后这些小鼠的睾丸显著缩小，内部结构崩溃，大量细胞死亡。三周后，小鼠睾丸缩小到了正常大小的十分之一，内部结构完全毁坏。研究人员对小鼠进行了持续六周的观察，在这段时间内小鼠睾丸并没有好转，即使血液中的病毒已经清除。

睾丸的内部结构依赖于Sertoli细胞，这些细胞负责维持血液与睾丸之间的屏障并滋养精子。研究人员发现，寨卡病毒能够感染和杀死Sertoli细胞，而Sertoli细胞不能再生。这项研究表明，受到寨卡感染之后小鼠的精子数和睾酮水平大幅下降。在感染六周后，小鼠的活动精子数下降十倍，睾酮水平也显著降低。与健康雄性小鼠相比，受感染小鼠使雌性小鼠受孕的机率要低四倍。“就我所知，只有这种病毒会造成这么严重的不育症状，”Moley说。“很少有微生物能跨越睾丸与血流之间屏障，直接感染睾丸。”

原文摘要：Zika virus (ZIKV) infection of pregnant women can cause congenital malformations including microcephaly, which has focused global attention on this emerging pathogen1. In addition to transmission by mosquitoes, ZIKV can be detected in the seminal fluid of affected males for extended periods of time and transmitted sexually2. Here, using a mouse-adapted African ZIKV strain (Dakar 41519), we evaluated the consequences of infection in the male reproductive tract of mice. We observed persistence of ZIKV, but not the closely related Dengue virus (DENV), in the testis and epididymis of male mice, and this was associated with tissue injury that caused diminished testosterone and inhibin B levels, and oligospermia. ZIKV preferentially infected spermatogonia, primary spermatocytes, and Sertoli cells in the testis, resulting in cell death and destruction of the seminiferous tubules. Less damage was observed with a contemporary Asian ZIKV strain (H/PF/2013), in part because this virus replicates less efficiently in mice. The extent to which these observations in mice translate to humans remains unclear, but longitudinal studies of sperm function and viability in ZIKV-infected humans seem warranted.