Persistent Inflammation and Failed Recovery after Perinatal Brain Injury: The Path to New Therapies & Sustained Repair

Monday, April 28, 2025

11:00am – 12:30pm HST

Location: Convention Center: Kalākaua Ballroom C (Level 4)

CE: 1.5

Selected By: CNS
Co-sponsored By: NBS, Neonatal

Chair(s)

Lauren Jantzie, PhD (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology and Neurosurgery
Pediatrics & Neurology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Disclosure(s):

Lauren Jantzie, PhD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Since perinatal brain injury (PBI) is a major predictor of neurological disability, many physicians and physician-scientists focus on treatment and mechanistic studies to lower neonatal mortality and morbidity. PBI may persist for long ranges of time triggering both acute and persistent inflammation. However, resolution of acute inflammation after PBI is ineffective in long-term clinical recovery; persistent central and peripheral inflammation after acute resolution is the likely explanation for failed PBI recovery and improved outcomes. Persistent inflammation is correlated with a disrupted placental-fetal-brain axis, altered innate immune system development, dysregulated immune-neural crosstalk, and adjusted inflammatory signatures. The combination of altered development caused by PBI and persistent inflammation results in lifelong changes to immune responsiveness, neural networks maintenance, and homeostasis. Preclinical and clinic research are needed to understand the complex relationship between development, perinatal brain injury, and persistent inflammation. Our preclinical and clinical expert speakers will highlight long-term consequences of disruptions in the placental-fetal-brain axis, unique inflammatory signatures of PBI, major routes of immune cell activation and response, and mechanisms of neural-immune conversation in both the term and preterm infant. Recognizing and treating persistent inflammation as a key player in PBI will enable scientists and physicians to reduce the impact of PBI across the lifespan.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion, participants will be able to list and discuss the major impacts of persistent inflammation in perinatal brain injury
Upon completion, participants will be able to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammation and subsequent developmental impacts
Upon completion, participants will be able to recognize unique inflammatory signatures across pre-clinical and clinical research of persistent inflammation in neonates

Presentations:

11:00am – 11:05am HST

Introduction
Speaker: Lauren Jantzie, PhD (she/her/hers) – Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
11:05am – 11:22am HST

Role of Microglia and Macrophages in Sustained Inflammation Following Perinatal Brain Insult
Speaker: Pierre Gressens, MD, PhD (he/him/his) – Inserm
11:22am – 11:39am HST

Effects of Perinatal Inflammation on the Blood-brain Barrier and Choroid Plexus
Speaker: Carina Mallard, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Gothenburg
11:39am – 11:56am HST

Sustained Peripheral Immune Reactivity and Lasting Motor and Cognitive Impairment
Speaker: Lauren Jantzie, PhD (she/her/hers) – Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
11:56am – 12:13pm HST

Persistent Systemic Inflammation in Childhood Following Perinatal Brain Injury in Term and Preterm Infants
Speaker: Eleanor J. Molloy, MB PhD FRCPI (she/her/hers) – Trinity College, Paediatrics and Child Health
12:13pm – 12:30pm HST

Q & A