Risk factors associated with the vertical transmission of cytomegalovirus in seropositive pregnant women

Abstract

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection (cCMV) is the leading cause of childhood disabilities. More recent data indicates that cCMV following maternal nonprimary infection occurs frequently and can cause similar rates of sequelae as those following maternal primary infection. However, the risks associated with cCMV especially in CMV-seropositive women remain unclear. This review summarizes potential risk factors of cCMV in seropositive women with perspectives on the causal link including sociodemographic factors, virological characteristics, the host immune system, genomics, metabonomics and proteomics. These observations and some new molecular markers, although not yet validated as a reliable tool predictive of cCMV, could be the basis for designing future prospective studies.