Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and is most often a benign disease. Two populations are at risk of severe disease, immunocompromised such as HIV-infected patients and fetuses or children with toxoplasmosis transmitted from their mothers via placenta. Congenital toxoplasmosis is rare on average, less than one case per 1,000 pregnancies, since mother-to-child transmissio...

Prenatal exposure to infection is known to affect brain development and has been linked to increased risk for schizophrenia. The goal of this study was to investigate whether maternal infection and associated fever near term disrupts synaptic transmission in the hippocampus of the offspring. We used LPS to mimic bacterial infection and trigger the maternal inflammatory response in near-term rat...

Rima McLeod, the leading author of an article published in this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases [1], has accumulated a unique and remarkable database on congenital toxoplasmosis in the United States through the National Collaborative Chicago-based Congenital Toxoplasmosis Study (NCCCTS), which began in 1981 and continues to date. In a recent study [2], she and colleagues at the reference ...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have linked maternal infection during pregnancy to later development of neuropsychiatric disorders in the offspring. In mice, experimental inflammation during embryonic development impairs behavioral and cognitive performances in adulthood. Synaptic dysfunctions may be at the origin of cognitive impairments, however the link between prenatal inflammation and s...

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection is a major cause of central nervous system and sensory impairments that affect cognition, motor function, hearing, language development, vestibular function, and vision. Although the importance of congenital cytomegalovirus infection is readily evident, the vast majority of maternal and fetal infections are not identified, even in developed countries. Multip...

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection is a major cause of central nervous system and sensory impairments that affect cognition, motor function, hearing, language development, vestibular function, and vision. Although the importance of congenital cytomegalovirus infection is readily evident, the vast majority of maternal and fetal infections are not identified, even in developed countries. Multip...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during pregnancy may result in long-term health problems for children with congenital CMV (cCMV). Currently, no prevention or treatment interventions are approved by the Food and Drug Administration a cCMV indication. Healthcare provider public awareness is low, formal clinical practice guidelines local patterns vary. A pilot study of eight experts was performed ...

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an arthropod-borne (arbovirus) transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes. ZIKV can be to humans non-vector borne mechanisms such as sexual intercourse, maternal-foetal transmission or blood transfusion. In 2015, emerged in the Americas, and spread 87 countries territories with autochthonous transmission, distributed across four of six WHO regions. Most infections pregnancy ...

2 SUMMARY Between 20 % and 60 % of the population of most countries are infected with the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. Subjects with clinically asymptomatic lifelong latent toxoplasmosis differ from those who are Toxoplasma free in several behavioral parameters. Case-control studies cannot decide whether these differences already existed before infection or whether they were induced by the pres...

Glucocorticoids, namely dexamethasone, are prescribed during late gestation in pregnancies at risk of originating premature newborns, to promote fetal lung maturation. However, adverse early life events have been reported to induce long-lasting changes in the immune and central nervous systems. The accumulating evidence on bidirectional interactions between both systems in psychiatric disorders...