$2.13M grant accelerates treatments for kids with Down syndrome experiencing respiratory viruses

Children’s National Hospital received a combined $2.13 million award from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to better understand the mechanisms of severe viral respiratory infections in patients with Down syndrome and to develop new diagnostic tools and innovative precision medicine approaches for this vulnerable population.

“We have a unique opportunity to discover novel targets that can treat severe viral respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV-2,” said Gustavo Nino, M.D., M.S.H.S., D’A.B.S.M., principal investigator in the Center for Genetic Medicine at Children’s National. “Part of the award will help us accelerate the development of these novel approaches to prevent severe respiratory infections caused by SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses like respiratory syncytial virus infection (RSV) in children and adults with Down syndrome.”

Lower respiratory tract infections are a leading cause of hospitalization and death in children with Down syndrome. Those children have a nine times higher risk for hospitalization and mortality due to respiratory viruses that cause lower respiratory tract infections.

Chromosome 21, which is an extra chromosome copy found in patients with Down syndrome, encodes four of the six known interferon receptors, leading to hyperactivation of interferon response in Down syndrome. With the central role of interferons focused on antiviral defense, it remains puzzling how interferon hyperactivation contributes to severe viral lower respiratory tract infections in children with Down syndrome. This is an area that the researchers will explore to better manage and treat viral lower respiratory tract infections in these patients, with the support of NIH’s INCLUDE initiative. INCLUDE provides institutions with grants to help clinical research and therapeutics to understand and diminish risk factors that influence the overall health, longevity, and quality of life for people with Down syndrome related to respiratory viruses.

“While many of the other studies focus on intellectual and other disabilities, we are exploring a novel viral respiratory infectious disease mechanism and are doing so by working directly with patients and patient-derived samples,” said Jyoti Jaiswal, M.Sc., Ph.D., senior investigator in the Center for Genetic Medicine Research at Children’s National.

Children with Down syndrome have historically been excluded in research related to airway antiviral immunity, which is a focus of this human-based transformative study to improve the health and survival of patients with Down syndrome. There is a critical need for studies that define targetable molecular and cellular mechanisms to address dysregulated antiviral responses in this patient population.

“The clinical expertise at Children’s National in studying Down syndrome and the work of our team in caring for these patients with respiratory and sleep disorders positions us well to pursue this work,” said Jaiswal. “This is further supplemented by our initial studies that have identified a novel mechanism of impaired airway antiviral responses in these patients.”

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) also celebrated Children’s National and its NIH research funding benefitting people with Down syndrome.

“I am pleased to congratulate Dr. Nino and staff on being the recipients of the National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute grant. You were chosen from a competitive group of applicants and should be proud of this notable achievement,” said Norton in a letter. “By receiving this grant, you have demonstrated outstanding promise in your field. It is my hope that this grant will enable you to better the local and global community.”