# The Impact of the Intrauterine and Early Childhood Environments on Neurocognitive and Metabolic Development in African American Youth: Focus on the Gut-Brain Axis

> **NIH NIH UH3** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $74,874

## Abstract

Abstract of Funded ECHO Parent Grant (UH3OD023318)
Environmental exposures during the critical prenatal and early childhood periods can result in lifelong health
consequences. Mechanisms underlying these exposure-health relationships are complex, with exogenous
exposures (such as chemical toxicants, infectious agents, diet) and endogenous processes (such as gene
expression, inflammation and oxidative stress) activating metabolic pathways that lead to adverse health
outcomes. Both adverse exposures and their health consequences disproportionately impact African American
(AA) women and children, highlighting that health disparities begin in utero and are amplified postnatally. Among
outcomes disproportionately experienced by AA children are preterm birth, neurodevelopmental deficits, and
obesity – all linked to environmental exposures, yet poorly understood due to their etiologic complexity. Our team
is currently investigating preterm birth and neurodevelopment through 18-months in relation to pre- and postnatal
exposures to environmental toxicants and biopsychosocial risk factors in cohorts of pregnant AA women
(R01NR014800, R01MD009064) and their infants (R01MD009746) and via our P50 Children's Center
(P50ES026071) in collaboration with the Emory HERCULES Exposome Research Center (P30 ES019776).
Through ECHO, we propose to elucidate exposures and risk pathways that contribute to neurodevelopmental
deficits and obesity in preschool aged AA children by: (1) Assembling an Atlanta ECHO cohort of ~440 AA
socioeconomically diverse mother-child pairs by combining extant cohorts for whom the prenatal, perinatal, and
early childhood environments are, or will be, characterized; (2) Completing the analysis and synthesis of data
from the Atlanta ECHO cohort to characterize mother-child pairs in terms of prenatal and early childhood
exposures (toxicants, stressors and neuroendocrine-immune activation, nutritional and metabolic status,
microbiome and infections, bonding and interaction); epigenetic and metabolomic profiles; and perinatal
outcomes (gestational age, size-for-gestation); (3) Testing cohort-specific hypotheses related to prenatal and
early childhood exposures and neurodevelopmental outcomes and obesity in AA children at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years
of age; (4) Participating in ECHO-wide consortium studies to identify risk and protective factors that moderate
associations between environmental exposures, typical growth and development, and adverse child health
outcomes. Our cohort's participation in the ECHO consortium will contribute to a biopsychosocial understanding
of within- and between-race risk for adverse child health outcomes, providing insight into risk and protective
factors relevant to AA families. The proposed research is consistent with frameworks for eliminating racial
disparities, which recognize the need to study risks within-race as a vital first step, and is congruent with the
National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10177546
- **Project number:** 3UH3OD023318-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** PATRICIA A BRENNAN
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $74,874
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-21 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10177546

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10177546, The Impact of the Intrauterine and Early Childhood Environments on Neurocognitive and Metabolic Development in African American Youth: Focus on the Gut-Brain Axis (3UH3OD023318-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10177546. Licensed CC0.

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