Groundbreaking discovery at Hadassah may change the practice of treating pregnant women, fetuses, and newborns with CMV

How will you know if?maternal?CMV?(cytomegalovirus) infection during pregnancy (a common infection among women of childbearing age) could severely harm the newborn, and what are the action options in such cases? The latest discovery of Prof.?Dana Wolf, Director of Clinical Virology at?Hadassah Medical Center, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation:?https://lnkd.in/ddEcgdBi,?could now provide evidence-based answer to this pressing and unmet need.

Congenital CMV is the most common intrauterine infection, affecting in average 0.64 % of births and leading to infant brain damage. Approximately 25% of congenitally infected infants suffer from neurological and/or audiological disabilities, which can be apparent at birth or develop later during childhood.?

Following primary maternal infection during pregnancy, the risk of intrauterine transmission to the fetus is high (~30%). Pregnant women diagnosed with primary CMV infection are routinely referred for amniotic fluid PCR test for the diagnosis of fetal CMV infection.

Once fetal infection is diagnosed, there have been, up until now, no established biomarkers for the severity of fetal disease. Women bearing infected fetuses are currently facing terrible?moments of ambivalence and have no other choice but making harsh decisions on the fate of the fetus with potential termination of the pregnancy, based solely on general statistical data of possible outcomes for the fetus.??

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Thus, the prognostic assessment of CMV-infected fetuses has remained an ongoing challenge in prenatal care. Prof. Dana Wolf and her team decided to address this pressing clinical-diagnostic need and identify valid prognostic biomarkers of ?congenital CMV related fetal brain injury.

The scientists performed global proteome analysis of mid-gestation amniotic fluid samples, comparing amniotic fluids of fetuses with severe cCMV with those of asymptomatic CMV-infected fetuses.?The study resulted in the discovery of two novel?and highly accurate biomarkers: the immunomodulatory proteins retinoic acid receptor responder 2 (chemerin) and galectin-3–binding protein (Gal-3BP), shown to be highly predictive of the severity of congenital CMV in an independent validation cohort.?

This groundbreaking discovery will provide patients and physicians with a long-awaited diagnostic tool which could be employed to profoundly improve the prognostic assessment of CMV-infected fetuses and newborns and guide personalized decisions and treatment.

Our IP protected technology could be furtherly developed into a routine diagnostic tool via collaborations with relevant biopharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, which are welcome to reach out to Hadasit VP BD?Dr. Sarit Batsir?for more details: [email protected].?