UMN Medical School and College of Veterinary Medicine Join Forces to Combat Deadly Viruses in Pregnancy
An interdisciplinary team secured $6.7M in NIH funding to study arenaviruses and develop vaccines to protect pregnant individuals.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School and the College of Veterinary Medicine are joining forces to fight a family of deadly viruses that pose a serious threat during pregnancy. Together, they have received two five-year grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $6.7 million to study how these viruses cause disease and to develop vaccines that can prevent infection.
The project focuses on arenaviruses, including Lassa and Junin, which are known to cause severe illness during pregnancy. The World Health Organization lists these viruses as global health priorities because of their potential to spread and the high risk they pose to pregnant individuals. Lassa virus is most common in West Africa, where an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 people are infected each year. Junin virus is found mainly in parts of Argentina and causes Argentine hemorrhagic fever, a serious disease with a high fatality rate without treatment.
In some cases, Lassa virus can cause maternal death rates as high as 50 percent in the third trimester, often leading to pregnancy loss. Until recently, scientists lacked a reliable way to study these infections during pregnancy. With support from a College of Veterinary Medicine grant, the Minnesota team developed the first animal model that closely reflects how Lassa virus behaves during pregnancy. This breakthrough laid the foundation for the new NIH-funded work.
“This effort exemplifies collaborative science and is made possible by the complementary expertise of our teams and our collaborators in intramural National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases laboratories,” says Craig Bierle, PhD, assistant professor in the Medical School.
With this new funding, the team will study how arenaviruses infect and damage the placenta and how this leads to complications for both the parent and baby. They will also continue developing a vaccine that uses a harmless virus to safely train the immune system to recognize and fight infection.
“I’m excited to join this collaborative effort to advance research that will help protect people, especially pregnant women and their babies, from devastating arenavirus infections,” said Yuying Liang, PhD, professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
“This collaborative effort between laboratories in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine highlights how veterinary medicine research can directly inform and impact human health,” added Hinh Ly, PhD, professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “By studying how these diseases work in both animals and humans, we can create new ways to protect pregnant people and their babies from dangerous viral infections.”
Beyond Lassa and Junin, the team’s discoveries could help researchers understand other viruses that cause pregnancy complications, including some already present in the United States. Because arenaviruses are also classified as potential bioterrorism threats, this work has important implications for both public health and national security.
Read the full story on the College of Veterinary Medicine website: UMN Researchers Combat a Deadly Family of Viruses