Around the world, psychiatrists and medical researchers are expecting an increase in children born at high risk of later developing psychosis due to in utero brain development problems triggered by pregnant women contracting the Covid-19 virus.
University of Otago department of anatomy and biomedical sciences researcher Prof Liu is elated by her team’s animal drug trial results, which appear to eradicate a key schizophrenia symptom.
"The research is still ongoing. But we found with our drug treatment [they] can be fully rescued ... which is really amazing," Prof Liu said.
In the general population, one in 100 people were likely to develop the debilitating mental disease schizophrenia, she said. But in recent decades it had become clear the risk was three times higher for the children of women who had a viral infection while pregnant.
One estimate, based on the calculation more than nine million women globally have been infected with Covid while pregnant, suggested more than 274,000 babies born since the start of the pandemic were at risk of schizophrenia due to maternal viral infection.
"I don’t have a specific number ... but around the world it will likely be a big problem," Prof Liu said.
Prof Liu’s research has used a maternal immune activation animal model to test a drug treatment. The drug, given to pregnant rats, prevented a key schizophrenia symptom in rat pups. When given to newborn and weaned pups displaying the schizophrenia symptom, the drug removed the symptom.
"I have been working on this particular drug for many years. If our data is really good, then potentially we can translate this animal work to humans, to a clinical setting."
