Developing a new test to predict preterm birth
Research institute:
Imperial College London
Project dates:
Grant Awarded: 17 Oct 2024
Funding awarded:
Grant Amount: £50,000
We need to find better ways to spot early signs of preterm birth. Prof Stuart Haslam is investigating whether changes to sugar molecules present in the vagina and cervix could help predict preterm labour. This would mean doctors could intervene early to stop babies from being born too soon.
The challenge
Most women who go into preterm labour do so without any early warning. We need to find new ways to assess someone’s risk of giving birth prematurely. This would allow doctors to intervene early, and prevent their baby from being born too soon.
The project
All cells in the body are surrounded by a ‘sugar coat’, complex sugar molecules called glycans. These glycans are involved in how cells talk to each other, to bacteria living in our body, and to the immune system.
Many preterm births are thought to be related to the immune system. And because glycans help cells talk to the immune system, Prof Stuart Haslam thinks glycans might play a role in some preterm births. He thinks that glycans in the cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) – the fluid found in the cervix and vagina – could act as an early indicator of preterm labour.
But no one has ever studied glycans in the CVF before in the context of preterm birth. So, in this project, Prof Haslam and his team are investigating how glycans change in normal pregnancies.
For this study, Prof Haslam and his team are recruiting 30 pregnant women who are at low risk of preterm birth. The women are donating samples of CVF at specific times throughout their pregnancy, collected using a soft silicon cup inserted into the vagina.
Prof Haslam and his team are using state-of-the-art techniques to identify the glycans present in these samples. They are also identifying the natural bacteria in the vagina, and measuring the chemicals released by the cells of the immune system.
Together, this information will give the team a picture of how glycans change over time in normal pregnancy. This will provide a foundation for studying what happens in preterm birth.
What difference will this project make?
We need to find new ways to tell whether a pregnant woman is likely to go into preterm labour. This project will provide the foundation for Prof Stuart Haslam to test his theory that glycans in cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) might act as an early indicator for preterm birth.
If his theory is correct, it could lead to new simple tests to predict whether a pregnant woman is at risk of preterm birth. This would mean that doctors could intervene early to stop their baby from being born too soon.
Project details
Project Leader
Prof Stuart Haslam
Location
Imperial College London
Project Team
Prof Anne Dell, Dr Paola Grassi
