Susana Chavez-Bueno, MD

Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine

Full Biography

Susana Chavez-Bueno, MD, Infectious Diseases, received a one-year, $25,000 Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation (IAMI) Trailblazer Award from National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) via a Frontiers Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) subaward.

The funding is being used on Dr. Chavez-Bueno’s study, “Optimization of a Vaginal Lactoferrin Formulation for Use in Pregnancy” for a project period of July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025.

As Dr. Chavez-Bueno explains, newborns have the highest sepsis occurrence of all age groups. Neonatal sepsis develops when pathogenic bacteria colonizing the vagina of pregnant women produce invasive infection in the fetus. Escherichia coli is the most common cause of neonatal early-onset sepsis and a leading neonatal meningitis pathogen, with mortality as high as 40 percent.

Neonatal sepsis by another pathogen, group B Streptococcus (GBS), is currently prevented with intravenous (IV) antibiotics given to colonized pregnant women, meaning a person who carries Group B strep bacteria but who does not show signs of infection. This practice is effective, but at the expense of widespread maternal-fetal antibiotic exposure. GBS antibiotic prophylaxis for the mother is not effective to prevent invasive neonatal E. coli strains due to their increasing antibiotic resistance.

Lactoferrin (LF) is an antibacterial and immunomodulatory glycoprotein secreted in breastmilk and other body fluids. LF has broad antimicrobial activity including against E. coli and GBS, explains Dr. Chavez-Bueno.

Experiments in her laboratory have shown that vaginal pretreatment with LF in solution administered prior to maternal infection significantly decreased invasive infection in the offspring. Their overall objective is to develop a vaginal Lactoferrin formulation suitable for testing in clinical trials to evaluate LF’s protective effect against neonatal invasive infection by E. coli and group B Streptococcus.

“This project will investigate an innovative approach against neonatal E. coli sepsis for which no prevention currently exists. This approach would also represent a breakthrough, non-antibiotic alternative against group B Streptococcus neonatal sepsis,” said Dr. Chavez-Bueno.