“We’re aiming to find a way to specifically target the muscles of the womb without affecting other important tissues – safely and effectively reducing the likelihood of spontaneous preterm birth,” says Professor Taggart.
But this will require the scientists to develop a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that activate womb muscle tissues to contract – and how these differ from similar processes in blood vessels of the womb and placenta.
“We’ve recently established that these three tissues react differently to certain drugs, suggesting they possess key differences at a molecular level that we could potentially exploit,” says Professor Taggart.
The team now plan to build on this work by using cutting-edge technologies to carry out sophisticated molecular analyses of tissue samples from the womb and placenta.
“We hope to identify new molecular targets that will aid the development of new drugs – or repurposing of existing drugs – that can more specifically act on womb muscle tissues,” says Professor Taggart.