14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by researchers from the Columbia University, suggests that the immune response during pregnancy can neurologically affect the unborn child.
W. Ian Lipkin is the senior author of the study that concluded that the immune response of a pregnant woman's body to viral infections, can trigger subtle neurological changes in the fetus, that might lead to a high risk of developing schizophrenia, autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, later on.
The study explains how this event could happen and gives possible solutions to avoiding this risk.
The team of researchers experimented on pregnant mice, in order to better understand the way that the immune system causes these neurological changes.
They exposed the mice to a synthetic molecular mimic of a replicating virus, and found out that the offspring had impaired locomotor activity, when compared to the control group.
More thorough testing established that the exposure to viruses caused the inhibition of the embryonic neuronal stem cell replication, which affected the development of the brain.
Scientists also looked at the possible role of an immune protein called Toll-like receptor 3 – TLR3, that is normally activated by viral infections.
They found out that the effects of exposure depended on TLR3, after using TLR3-deficient mice, and tested if the drug carpofen, which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, has any effect.
The research concluded that pretreatment with this dug canceled the effects of exposure.
Lipkin explained that “infection during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of damage to the developing nervous system.
“Given that many agents have been implicated, we decided to focus on mechanisms by which the maternal immune response, rather than direct infection of the fetus, might contribute to behavioral disturbances in the offspring of mothers who suffer infection during pregnancy.”
These “findings provide insights into mechanisms by which maternal infection may induce subtle changes in brain and behavior and suggest strategies for reducing the risk of neuropsychiatric diseases following exposures to infectious agents and other triggers of innate immunity during gestation,” adds Lipkin.
W. Ian Lipkin, MD, is the Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, and Professor of Neurology and Pathology in the Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.
This new research was published in the online journal mBio.