ActivePregnancy, Children & Inherited ConditionsLungs & Breathing

New insights on the role of prenatal exposure to specific infectious diseases in the onset of non-infectious chronic conditions during childhood and adolescence

FunderWellcomeCharity-funded
Recipient organisationLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Funding£1.9M
PeriodJun 2023 — May 2031

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A mother’s infection during pregnancy could alter her child’s long-term health, even if the child shows no sign of the original infection at birth. This matters because doctors currently have no clear picture of how common infections like flu or urinary tract infections during pregnancy might contribute to chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or growth disorders in children and adolescents. The link is suspected but poorly understood. Using a large Brazilian dataset that tracks mothers and their children over decades, the researcher will compare health outcomes and growth patterns between children whose mothers had specific infections during pregnancy and those whose mothers did not. The study will also test whether preterm birth acts as a biological middleman between maternal infection and later chronic illness. If the research succeeds, it could identify critical windows during pregnancy where targeted interventions—such as better infection screening or treatment—might prevent or reduce the severity of chronic conditions later in life. This is not about immediate bedside changes, but about reshaping how clinicians and public health officials think about prenatal care and its long-term consequences.

View original technical description
In utero exposure to infectious diseases may set the stage for long-term health outcomes. There may be no evidence of the infection when the chronic condition is diagnosed. This proposal aims to investigate whether infectious diseases during pregnancy can increase the risk of the offspring developing a non-infectious chronic condition during childhood and adolescence. Specifically: 1. Do infectious diseases during pregnancy increase the offspring's risk of non-infectious chronic conditions? 2. Do infectious diseases during pregnancy affect the offspring's growth pattern? 3. Is the relationship between maternal infectious disease and non-infectious chronic outcomes mediated by conditions such as preterm birth? Using an unparalleled longitudinal Brazilian resource derived from linked data, I will compare health outcomes and growth trajectories of children and adolescents born to mothers with and without specific infectious diseases during pregnancy using a variety of epidemiological approaches and decompose the direct and mediated effects of maternal infection on chronic disorders. The results from this study will advance our understanding of the relationship between infectious diseases during pregnancy and chronic disorders, with widespread implications enabling targeting of critical points along the path from in utero exposure to outcomes to avoid or mitigate illness and disability over the life course.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Enny Cruz (EPMC Awardee)

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Original classification

Career Development Award

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.