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A recent scientific study involving more than 2,000 pregnant women showed that specific antibodies may contribute to some cases of premature birth by triggering inflammation that leads to uterine contractions.
According to the study published in the journal "Nature Immunology", researchers observed higher levels of these antibodies, at an early stage of pregnancy, in women who gave birth before completing the 37th week, compared to women who carried their pregnancies to full term.
These antibodies target a protein known as "IL-1RA", which works to inhibit another molecule called "IL-1β" associated with inflammation that can stimulate uterine contractions. Researchers suggest that disrupting the first protein allows for increased inflammation, which may lead to early labor.
In experiments on mice, injecting the target protein antibodies before birth led to elevated levels of the inflammation-promoting molecule, as well as signs of placental damage similar to those observed in some human premature birth cases.
The researchers pointed out that these results may pave the way for studying potential treatments to prevent some cases of premature birth, including the drug "Kineret", which contains a synthetic form of the "IL-1RA" protein and is used to treat certain inflammatory conditions.
However, the researchers stressed that these antibodies were detected in only a limited percentage of premature birth cases, indicating that this phenomenon has multiple causes, and that further studies are still needed to determine the efficacy and safety of the proposed treatment during pregnancy.
The research team leader, Joe DeRisi from the University of California, San Francisco, said that the discovery of this immune signal represents an important step toward understanding the causes of complications in some pregnancies.
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