Resarch for urinary biomarkers of congenital cytomegalovirus in newborns

Biomarkers are indicators of change that measure transformations in a person’s metabolism. They are used to monitor and predict the health status of an individual or population so that an appropriate therapeutic intervention can be planned.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital infections worldwide. This infection has an estimated annual incidence of between 500,000 and 1,300,000 new cases each year, surpassing other better known congenital infections such as the Zika virus or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The incidence of CMV among newborns in Québec is estimated at 800 cases per 80,000 births. A proportion of 10 % of affected babies are symptomatic and the majority of these babies can be diagnosed based on their symptoms. However, 90 % of them are completely asymptomatic. In the latter group, it is estimated that 10-15 % will be affected by a sensorineural hearing loss that may be present at birth or may develop gradually during infancy.
The main objectives of the proposed study are as follows : Discover new biomarkers of CMV. Develop and validate a method for the quantitative analysis of these biomarkers by tandem mass spectrometry allowing the possible analysis of a large number of samples. Evaluate the performance
of the CMV PCR on urine filter papers.