Japanese encephalitis, or JE, -- commonly known as brain fever -- is one of the prevalent mosquito-borne encephalitides across Southeast Asia. Besides killing thousands of people each year, scientists said even patients who recover commonly encounter psychiatric problems.

NBRC researchers led by Anirban Basu and graduate student Sulagna Das said children are more vulnerable targets of the virus.

"Children are at a dynamic stage of brain development, hence infection at this stage can have devastating effects on mental functions later in life," said Basu. "The breakthrough here is that the JE virus prevents neural stem and progenitor cells in the brain from dividing; it hangs them up.

"It's the first time that a mosquito-borne virus has ever been shown to affect neural stem cells," he said.

The research is presented online in the Journal of Neurochemistry and will appear in a future print issue.