Mechanisms and Modifiers of Prenatal Acetaminophen Exposure and Child Neurodevelopment

NIH RePORTER · MH · K99 · $244,123 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Acetaminophen, which is found in more than 600 prescription and non-prescription medications for mild to moderate pain and fever reduction, is not restricted to pharmacies and is sold over-the-counter in many countries, including the United States. In most populations worldwide, over 50% of pregnant people report taking acetaminophen, which easily crosses the placenta and fetal blood brain barrier, potentially affecting fetal brain development. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have traditionally viewed acetaminophen as posing minimal risks to the fetus when used as directed but have called for more rigorous studies and better safety data to inform their recommendations on how pain medicines are used during pregnancy. Accumulating evidence from epidemiologic and animal research highlights potential neurodevelopmental risks associated with prenatal acetaminophen exposure, yet limitations remain in the literature preventing regulatory agencies from assessing whether these associations are causal. Prior studies could be confounded by genetic or familial factors, and mechanisms linking acetaminophen with adverse neurodevelopment remain unknown, limiting our ability to develop targets for harm reduction. While adjusting for a robust set of genetic, environmental, and familial factors, this proposal aims to elucidate molecular mechanisms and genetic effect modifiers of associations between prenatal acetaminophen and adverse neurodevelopment. During the mentored K99 phase, I will receive training from leaders in pediatrics, child psychiatry and psychology, pharmacogenomics, metabolomics, and multi-omics. I will combine this training with my prior expertise in prenatal acetaminophen research and epidemiology to model associations of maternal blood biomarkers of acetaminophen with a broad spectrum of child neurodevelopmental outcomes, including ADHD. I will investigate genotype by prenatal acetaminophen i

Key facts

NIH application ID
11229691
Project number
1K99MH138623-01A1
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Principal Investigator
Brennan H. Baker
Activity code
K99
Funding institute
MH
Fiscal year
2026
Award amount
$244,123
Award type
1
Project period
2026-04-01T00:00:00 → 2028-03-31T00:00:00