Testing the long-term health impact of a new drug to prevent preterm birth
Research institute:
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
Project dates:
Grant Awarded: 30 Sep 2020
Funding awarded:
Grant Amount: £232,500
Prof Stephen Lye and colleagues have identified a drug which can prevent preterm birth in animal studies. In this project, the team are investigating whether the drug improves the long-term health of newborns. The evidence generated promises to enable the team to test the drug in human clinical trials. If successful, this may one day provide a new option to prevent some babies from being born too soon.
The challenge
Preterm birth is the leading cause of death and disability in children worldwide. We need to find new ways to prevent preterm birth, so that we make sure more babies are born healthy.
The project
In previous research, Prof Stephen Lye and his colleagues have found that an existing drug called FX125L is effective at preventing preterm birth caused by infections and inflammation in animal studies. To move towards testing this drug in a human clinical trial in pregnant women, the team need to also demonstrate that FX125L also prevents long-term health problems in fetuses and offspring. This is what the team aims to do in this project.
Prof Lye and his team are testing FX125L on pregnant mice induced to go into early labour with infectious or inflammatory agents. The team are focusing on whether FX125L improves the mice pups’ brain health, which is often affected in babies born prematurely. The researchers are also studying how FX125L affects the behaviour and brain function of the pups, as well as their general body development.
The mice treated with FX125L are being compared to mice pups born prematurely, and untreated mice pups born at full-term, to understand the specific effects of the drug.
What difference will this project make?
We need to find new effective treatments to prevent preterm birth. Prof Stephen Lye and his colleagues have identified one such potential treatment in FX125L, and in this project they aim to demonstrate that the drug can prevent long-term health problems in mice pups. FX125L has already been examined in humans for the treatment of asthma and found to be safe. If the current work is successful, the evidence will help the team to start clinical trials to test FX125L in pregnant women.
This research could lead to a new treatment in the near future to help prevent some preterm births – helping more babies be born healthy and at the right time.
