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Headlines 15 Psoriasis during pregnancy linked to foetal brain development? Could having the skin condition psoriasis during pregnancy be linked to a child’s brain development? Dr Hannah Jones, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Starship Children’s Hospital, thinks it could, and with funding from the Neurological Foundation, hopes to better understand if the two are linked. It is the first study of its kind in the world looking at the causal link between psoriasis and neurodevelopmental disorders in babies. Hannah is recruiting 200 women under 20 weeks pregnant to take part in her research – 100 with psoriasis, and 100 without – from the Auckland region. “We know that having an infection during pregnancy can be linked with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), but one thing that hasn’t been looked at in detail is autoimmune disorders during pregnancy, such as psoriasis,” Hannah says. Children will be reviewed at two- years-of-age for signs of any disorders such as autism, attention deficit/ hyperactivity, and tic disorders, which typically affect one in six children. “The risk and cause for these disorders is genetic, but the rates are increasing more than you would expect so there are likely to be important environmental factors at play.” While two-years-of-age is often too early to make a diagnosis of a NDD, Hannah will look at social and emotional functioning, language, and motor skills, and hopes to continue the study to follow children as they get older. The research builds on Hannah’s remarkable PhD with Professor Russell Dale at the University of Sydney, which discovered an important association between maternal autoimmune disease and childhood tics and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a large case-control study. “We looked at the mothers of 200 children with tic disorders and OCD and found autoimmune disease was 2.5 times more common in this group when compared with healthy controls,” Hannah says. “The other interesting thing that stood out was that while thyroid disease is the most common autoimmune disease, psoriasis was overrepresented in the mother’s results. We are really excited to receive funding to further explore this potential link.” As an clinician researcher, Hannah is a bit of superstar when it comes to securing funding. This is her third grant from the Neurological Foundation. In 2015, she received a Starship Foundation Fellowship to complete a project funded by the Neurological Foundation investigating Māori and Polynesian children with autoimmune neurological disease in New Zealand and New South Wales. This established that anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is 17 to 50 times higher inMāori and Pacific Island children when compared with children in the UK. Those children also experienced poorer outcomes than the UK control group. The findings changed clinical practice in New Zealand by promoting early and aggressive diagnosis and treatment of Māori and Pacific Island children with the disorder. Hannah is also expanding her research in anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis to include other types of autoimmune encephalitis in New Zealand children. She is also investigating other debilitating immune neurological diseases that affect children such as Sydenham’s chorea. “I would not be able to do what I do without these grants. The window is really critical to get funding for research early and it’s hard when you are a new researcher. The Neurological Foundation has helped me to build the experience to lead a project like this,” Hannah says. “And while themoney is helpful, the other unseen benefit is knowing you have New Zealanders who care about your work and support you directly. That makes the grants from the Neurological Foundation so special, and I am so grateful to the everyday NewZealanders whomake this work possible.” “I would not be able to do what I do without these grants. The window is really critical to get funding for research early and it’s hard when you are a new researcher."