Researchers from the University of Delaware in Newark are using a $1.8 million National Institutes of Health grant to explore the repercussions of infections that occur shortly before or after birth.
While Zika virus may be currently holding the spotlight for global concerns about prenatal infection, the team says any infection a woman contracts while pregnant can have a serious affect on the fetus.
"We know from previous research that if Mom has influenza in the second or third trimester, there's an increased risk of mental health problems later in the child's life," Jaclyn Schwarz, PhD,,said in a statement. "No one single thing causes autism or schizophrenia, as far as we know. But we think that something happens with an infection early in life that primes the brain to be vulnerable to other factors that do lead to these kinds of disorders."
Much of the previous research in the field of prenantal infection has neglected to follow up with babies who survive prenatal infections when they become adults to observe the effects on the brain later in life. Prenatal infections may also affect the sexes differently, an important factor that has been overlooked in medical research for a long time, according to Dr. Schwarz.
Ultimately, the team hopes to identify the stages in brain development where infections can trigger negative outcomes that occur later in life and develop interventions to combat those changes.