Author Interviews, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Infections, Microbiome, OBGYNE, Vaccine Studies / 30.11.2018
Mother’s Milk and Microbiome Affect Babies’ Reaction to Diarrhea Disease from Rotavirus
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sasirekha Ramani, PhD
Assistant Professor
Molecular Virology and Microbiology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: This work pertains to Rotavirus, a leading cause of diarrhea and vomiting in children under the age of 5 years. In this paper, we described our work with a rotavirus strain that almost exclusively causes neonatal infections. For many years, we have been trying to understand why this strain primarily infects newborns and why infection in some babies is associated with gastrointestinal symptoms while others are asymptomatic. A few years ago, we showed that this particular virus binds to developmentally-regulated glycans (sugars) in the gut as receptors. As the baby grows, these sugars get modified, and that potentially explains why infection with this virus is primarily restricted to neonates. However, we didn’t really have to answer to why there are differences in association with clinical presentations.
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