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Maximus Payeur was born with congenital CMV. Thanks to early detection and intervention, he is doing well at one year, but his mother hopes this infection will be prevented in others in the future if vaccine trials are successful. /Photo by Susan Urmy

A study at Vanderbilt aims to develop a vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV), an infection that can cause serious complications for unborn children. One patient knows the importance of the study... Shannon Payeur contracted a CMV infection while she was pregnant. CMV, which causes few problems for healthy people, can have devastating effects on a fetus.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CMV is the most common virus transmitted to a pregnant woman's unborn child. About one child in 150 is born with CMV infection, and each year approximately 8,000 children in the United States suffer permanent disabilities due to CMV. Congenital CMV infection is as common a cause of serious disability as Down's syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and neural tube defects.

"I think women need to know about this. It is something I never heard about until they saw it in my son's ultrasound," Payeur said. In her case, the prenatal diagnostic screening caught early signs of the infection. That allowed the family to take part in a study of an experimental medicine before her son was delivered. Payeur believes the treatment saved him from permanent damage.

Vanderbilt investigators are currently testing a vaccine against CMV, a project that's just been expanded in the hopes of speeding up recruitment.

"The Institute of Medicine is prioritizing the development of this vaccine so that we might prevent serious damages that could result if a mother is infected with CMV during her pregnancy," said Kathryn Edwards, MD, a pediatrician at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Edwards is the principal investigator for the Nashville site of a multi-center trial to test the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine against CMV. The study has been under way for two years, but recruitment has been slow. The technical details required for participation have been opened up in the hopes of reaching the goal of 350 participants.

Participants are girls ages 12 through 17 who test negative for CMV exposure. It's the ideal population, because about half of women get to childbearing age without contracting CMV. Up to 4 percent of women get their first infection when they are pregnant.

For more information about the study, contact the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program at 322-8792.

Tags:

CMV, cytomegalovirus, Dr. Kathryn Edwards, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Vaccine Research

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