Cancer drug may help avoid premature babies
Filed under: Premature babies — Alan @ 9:32 am
A research team from Newcastle University now believes that Trichostatin A, a drug commonly used to treat cancer, may also be useful in preventing premature labour.
The research team tested the drug on the tissue of 26 women who had a caesarean surgery, and found that the therapy helps to increase the protein in the tissue, which aids muscle relaxation and prevents contractions.
Every year in the UK there are over 50,000 premature babies born, out of which 1,500 babies die. In fact, preterm labour is thought to be one of the leading causes of infant death around the globe, in the developed areas of the world.
Researchers found that when Trichostatin A was tested on the tissue of women who had a caesarean contractions reduced by 46% on average for tissue that was contracting spontaneously, and on average the oxytocin which is a well known labour drug saw its reduction of contractions by 54%.
The reason why the Trichostatin may be helpful in reducing contractions is due to the fact that medically it was previously proven that protein kinase A is helpful in controlling and relaxing the uterus throughout pregnancy.
The use of the Trichostatin helps to increase the amount of protein kinase A found in the cells.
Although the leader of the research team, Professor Nick Europe-Finner, stated that Trichostatin cannot be given to an actual patient since it can kills as much as 10% of genes in a cell, the fact that it isolates agents makes the discovery worth further investigation.
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