Zika E was shown to have NGF activity in this present study. It suggests that Zika E may use a similar mechanism to traverse the blood-brain barrier. Then, at the synaptic or axonal terminal, Zika E/TrkA attaches and is endocytosed, forming an endosomal signal that is retrogradely delivered to the cell body. The release of the Zika virus from the endosomal body can result in infection of neural cells.