Most pathogens are well controlled by the maternal immune response during pregnancy. However, select viral and bacterial agents can be transmitted across the placenta to the fetus or ascend from the female lower genital tract to the fetal compartment. These infections often result in stillbirth, premature delivery, or developmental anomalies in infected children. The development of therapies to prevent or treat many infections of pregnancy has been limited by an incomplete understanding of the host and pathogen factors that regulate in utero infection.
Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most significant infectious cause of congenital disease. Congenital CMV infection occurs in between 0.5 to 2% of pregnancies. Between 12 and 25% of CMV infected newborns have sensorineural damage, such as hearing or vision loss and intellectual disability, and an estimated 8000 children are killed or disabled by the virus annually in the United States. In 2000, the Institutes of Medicine estimated that care for individuals disabled by CMV cost the United States $1.9 billion each year. There is no licensed vaccine to prevent congenital CMV infection and antiviral therapies are not widely used in children.
The Bierle Lab uses in vitro and in vivo models of CMV infection to understand how viruses infect the placenta and transmit to the fetus. CMV is the most genetically complex virus known to infect humans, and how viral accessory genes contribute to in utero infection is not known. We are leveraging genome engineering technologies and next generation sequencing to identify viral factors that are necessary for the virus to infect the placenta and fetus. Additionally, we are studying the placental immune response to CMV infection. Through our ongoing studies, we aim to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for perinatal viral infection and identify new targets for CMV vaccine and drug development.
Our Support:
Research in the Bierle Lab has been supported by the University of Minnesota Department of Pediatrics, the Masonic Children's Hospital Research Fund, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
