# Developmental disruption in the transplacental transmission strategy of Toxoplasma gondii

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $36,063

## Abstract

Project summary/abstract:
Infection-induced developmental divergence in the transplacental transmission strategy of Toxoplasma
gondii. Toxoplasma gondii is the world’s most ubiquitous human parasitic infection. Infection of pregnant women
can result in transmission of the parasite to the developing fetus, often causing devastating birth defects. Fetal
infection requires the parasite to cross the maternal-fetal barrier, a junction primarily defended by the placenta.
The strategy by which T. gondii surmounts this tissue barrier is poorly understood at both the cellular and
molecular level. Critical to this process are placental trophoblasts, cells that undergo coordinated development
into distinct differentiated subtypes (most notably progenitor cytotrophoblasts, CYTs; syncytiotrophoblasts,
SYNs; and extravillous trophoblasts; EVTs) to form the maternofetal interface, and which previous data show
are differentially susceptible to T. gondii infection. The proposed studies test the hypothesis that T. gondii
infection of CYTs alters their developmental trajectory to promote parasite infection in a manner that disrupts
proper placental and fetal development. This hypothesis was formulated based on preliminary transcriptome and
immunofluorescence data showing that T. gondii-infected CYTs bear gene expression signatures that are more
similar to infection-permissive EVTs compared to infection-resistant SYNs. These data suggest that T. gondii-
infection alters cell fate to favor one lineage at the cost of the other, possibly to its own advantage. In the
proposed studies I will use a bipotent in vitro trophoblast stem cell system and organoid model of placental
development to investigate 1) the extent of T. gondii-driven disruption of placental trophoblast development and
2) how this impacts placental trophoblast function.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10799652
- **Project number:** 5F31AI167594-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Leah Frances Cabo
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $36,063
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-05-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10799652

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10799652, Developmental disruption in the transplacental transmission strategy of Toxoplasma gondii (5F31AI167594-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10799652. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*