怀孕期间感染甲型流感病毒(IAV)可增加后代神经发育障碍的风险,然而,潜在的神经生物学机制在很大程度上是未知的。为了概述病毒感染,临床前研究传统上集中在使用合成病毒模拟物,而不是活的IAV,研究母体免疫激活(MIA)依赖性过程对后代的影响。相比之下,很少有研究使用活的IAV来评估对全球基因表达的影响,到目前为止,还没有人解决过适度的IAV,模仿季节性流感疾病,改变不同发育阶段不同大脑区域的正常基因表达轨迹。在这里,我们显示怀孕期间中度IAV感染,导致轻微的母体疾病,子宫内没有明显的胎儿并发症,对后代的成年产生持久的影响。我们观察到成年后代的行为变化,包括脉冲前抑制中断,多巴胺能反应过度,和空间识别记忆缺陷。从新生儿到青春期的后代大脑中的基因图谱显示海马中正常基因表达轨迹的持续改变,小脑,前额叶皮质,还有下丘脑.在参与炎症和神经发生的基因中发现了改变,在新生儿和青春期早期后代中主要失调。值得注意的是,从感染IAV的小鼠出生的晚期青春期后代在海马中显示出改变的小胶质细胞形态。总之,我们表明,怀孕期间中度IAV会扰乱后代的神经发育轨迹,包括海马中神经炎症基因表达谱和小胶质细胞数量和形态的改变,导致成年后代的行为改变。这种早期扰动可能是人类后代对神经发育障碍后期发展的脆弱性的基础。包括精神分裂症.我们的工作强调了在开发新的临床前模型中使用活的IAV的重要性,这些模型可以更好地概括怀孕期间炎症损伤对后代神经发育轨迹和以后生活中疾病易感性的现实世界影响。
Influenza A virus (IAV) infection during pregnancy can increase the risk for
neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring, however, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are largely unknown. To recapitulate viral infection, preclinical studies have traditionally focused on using synthetic viral mimetics, rather than live IAV, to examine consequences of maternal immune activation (MIA)-dependent processes on offspring. In contrast, few studies have used live IAV to assess effects on global gene expression, and none to date have addressed whether moderate IAV, mimicking seasonal influenza disease, alters normal gene expression trajectories in different brain regions across different stages of development. Herein, we show that moderate IAV infection during pregnancy, which causes mild maternal disease and no overt foetal complications in utero, induces lasting effects on the offspring into adulthood. We observed behavioural changes in adult offspring, including disrupted pre-pulse inhibition, dopaminergic hyper-responsiveness, and spatial recognition memory deficits. Gene profiling in the offspring brain from neonate to adolescence revealed persistent alterations to normal gene expression trajectories in the hippocampus, cerebellum, prefrontal cortex, and hypothalamus. Alterations were found in genes involved in inflammation and neurogenesis, which were predominately dysregulated in neonatal and early adolescent offspring. Notably, late adolescent offspring born from IAV infected mice displayed altered microglial morphology in the hippocampus. In conclusion, we show that moderate IAV during pregnancy perturbs
neurodevelopmental trajectories in the offspring, including alterations in the neuroinflammatory gene expression profiled and microglial number and morphology in the hippocampus, resulting in behavioural changes in adult offspring. Such early perturbations may underlie the vulnerability in human offspring for the later development of
neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia. Our work highlights the importance of using live IAV in developing novel preclinical models that better recapitulate the real-world impact of inflammatory insults during pregnancy on the offspring
neurodevelopmental trajectory and disease susceptibility later in life.