Polio Place

Antonio Toniolo, MD

In late 2013, Post-Polio Health International awarded $100,000 to the team of Antonio Toniolo, MD; Andreina Baj, MD; Martina Colombo, PhD – Laboratory of Medical Microbiology and Virology, Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria Medical Center, Varese, Italy, to expand its search for poliovirus genome in various populations. The team’s work was enhanced by the expertise of Konstantin Chumakov, PhD, Associate Director for Research, Office of Vaccines Research and Review, FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Silver Spring, Maryland.

The goals were: 1) to complete the systematic search of poliovirus genomes in the Italian cohort of post-polio syndrome cases, and 2) to verify if poliovirus genomes are also present in aging polio survivors with “stable polio” (i.e., those aged >60 years that have not developed post-polio syndrome).

Their aim was to establish whether the presence of persisting polioviruses may have a pathogenic role in post-polio syndrome and to define the peculiarities of genomic sequences of polioviruses detected in cases with post-polio syndrome as opposed to the genomic sequences of wild-type polioviruses. Learn more.