UTMB receives $4.1 million grant to study drugs capable of treating a fetus in utero

The National Institutes of Health awarded University of Texas Medical Branch researchers more than $4.1 million over the next five years to test an anti-inflammatory drug capable of reaching and treating a fetus during pregnancy to prevent preterm birth.

The research, led by Dr. Ramkumar Menon, professor and Director of Basic and Translational Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UTMB, and a pioneer in the use of organ-on-a-chip technology to study gestational disease, will test the effectiveness and safe delivery of anti-inflammatory protein IL-10 delivered using naturally occurring nanoparticles called exosomes.

"This approach, if successful, will be revolutionary to save babies from preterm birth associated deaths," Menon said. "Pregnant people and the fetus are often overlooked in the drug testing process even as neonatal and maternal morbidity and mortality rates rise. By using our pregnancy on a chip technology, we will be able to test this drug and know if it is safe and effective. These results will be further validated in non-human primate models. Once confirmed, our organ-on-a-chip model can reduce, refine, or replace the use of animals in reproductive biology research."

Inflammation, in response to an infection or other exposure, can be one of the reasons for a preterm birth, usually referring to unintentional, unplanned delivery before the 37th week of pregnancy. Despite medical improvements, about 10.5 percent of pregnancies end up in a spontaneous preterm birth leading to a million babies dying each year around the globe.

"That rate has not changed in over three decades," Menon said. "But if we focus on the fetus as a patient in its own right, we can change that. Our goal is to save babies."

Menon is joined by Dr. Ananth Kammala and Lauren Richardson from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UTMB and by Dr. Kristina Adams-Waldorf from the University of Washington, Seattle.