A study at Vanderbilt aims to develop a vaccine against cytomegalovirus (CMV), an infection that can cause serious complications for unborn children.

CMV, which causes few problems for healthy people, can have devastating effects on a foetus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CMV is the most common virus transmitted to a pregnant woman's unborn child. Approximately one in 150 children is born with CMV infection. Each year approximately 8,000 U.S. children suffer permanent disabilities due to CMV. Congenital CMV infection is as common a cause of serious disability as Down's syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and neural tube defects.

Vanderbilt investigators are currently testing a vaccine against CMV, a project that's just been expanded in the hopes of speeding up recruitment.

"The Institute of Medicine is prioritizing the development of this vaccine so that we might prevent serious damages that could result if a mother is infected with CMV during her pregnancy," said Kathryn Edwards, M.D., a paediatrician at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Edwards is the principal investigator for the Nashville site of a multi-center trial to test the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine against CMV. The study has been under way for two years, but recruitment has been slow. The technical details required for participation have been opened up in the hopes of reaching the goal of 350 participants.

Participants are girls ages 12 through 17 who test negative for CMV exposure. It's the ideal population, because about half of women get to childbearing age without contracting CMV. Up to 4 percent of women get their first infection when they are pregnant.

"The CMV infection is not harmful to most people, but if you get your first infection during pregnancy, the effects are much more serious for the baby," Edwards said. "Women who become infected with CMV for the first time during pregnancy can pass the virus to their unborn babies."