Preventing infant health problems

Medical research supported by the March of Dimes is helping improve babies’ chances of being born healthy and staying healthy. Major accomplishments include the development of certain newborn screening tests. Grantees developed the first screens for inborn errors of body chemistry including phenylketonuria (PKU), biotinidase deficiency, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and hyperthyroidism. Today, more than 96 percent of all babies born in America are screened for at least 26 disorders that, without prompt treatment, can result in serious health problems, brain damage or even death.

Maternal health issues

Recipients of research grants also conduct studies on maternal health conditions (such as diabetes and obesity), infections and pregnancy complications that can contribute to a wide range of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including premature birth, reduced birthweight, birth defects, newborn death and various newborn illnesses and childhood health problems. For example, treatments are currently being sought by grantees to prevent mothers from passing dangerous infections, such as toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, and herpes on to their babies during pregnancy or delivery.

Keeping childhood infections at bay

Researchers are also working to improve the treatment of common childhood infections, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that can lead to serious complications in healthy children. RSV, which can cause pneumonia, is a leading cause of infant hospitalization in the United States and is most risky in infants and toddlers who were born prematurely or with certain birth defects.

Infant health research sample grants

Michael Cappello, MD, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, is seeking to develop a vaccine against hookworm infection. This parasitic infection affects up to 40 million pregnant women worldwide each year. Infected women often develop anemia and nutritional deficiencies, which can result in poor fetal growth, premature birth and childhood learning problems.

James E. Crowe, MD, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, is seeking to develop effective drug treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the United States. Almost all babies contract RSV in the first 2 years of life, with most developing only mild cold-like symptoms. RSV is more likely to cause serious complications, such as pneumonia, in babies who were born prematurely or with birth defects.

Florence S. Dzierszinski, PhD, McGill University, Canada, is investigating how the body's immune system responds to Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that cause toxoplasmosis, as a step toward developing a vaccine or drug treatment to prevent transmission of the infection from a pregnant woman to her baby. When contracted by a pregnant woman, toxoplasmosis can result in miscarriage, stillbirth and birth defects.

Paul Hruz, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, is seeking to understand how a gene may contribute to type II (adult-onset) and gestational (pregnancy-related) diabetes, as a basis for developing improved drug treatments. Women with diabetes with onset prior to pregnancy are at increased risk of pregnancy complications and of having a baby with birth defects. Babies of women with gestational diabetes are at increased risk of large size, birth injuries and newborn health problems.

Ho Yi Mak, MD, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Missouri, is seeking to identify genes that help regulate fat storage, as a basis for developing new ways to prevent obesity and type II diabetes, which is common in obese individuals. An increasing number of pregnant women are obese, which increases the risk of pregnancy complications and of having a baby with birth defects.

Franck Mauvis-Jarvis, MD, PhD, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, is studying how changes in the functioning of a gene may predispose a woman to develop gestational diabetes, as a basis for developing ways to prevent it. This pregnancy-related form of diabetes occurs in about 5 percent of pregnancies and contributes to newborn health problems, and possibly, to childhood obesity and diabetes.

Alistair McGregor, PhD, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, is studying the effectiveness of anti-viral drugs in preventing transmission of cytomegalovirus (CMV) from a pregnant woman to her baby. About 1 percent of babies are born with congenital CMV infection, sometimes resulting in mental retardation, and vision and hearing loss.

Lynda A. Morrison, PhD, Saint Louis School of Medicine in Missouri, is developing a vaccine against the virus that causes genital herpes, in order to prevent dangerous newborn infections. Babies who contract this infection from their mothers during delivery sometimes develop serious infections, lasting disabilities such as mental retardation, and some die.

Joseph W. St. Geme, MD, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, is studying a recently identified form of Haemophilus (a family of bacteria) to learn how it causes severe newborn infections, as a step toward developing an effective drug treatment. This infection poses a high risk of death in infected premature infants.

Virginia D. Winn, MD, PhD, University of Colorado, Denver, is studying a role of a gene in causing preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous pregnancy-related form of high blood pressure, as a basis for developing drug treatments. Preeclampsia occurs in up to 8 percent of pregnancies and contributes to about 15 percent of preterm deliveries.