Date Published: 13 February 2006

Premature Babies: New Research to help identify who is at risk

Premature Babies - Can the Body's Own "Cannabis" Help Identify Those at Risk?

A new method of identifying pregnant women at risk of having premature babies is to be developed at Leicester University in England.

Medical researchers at the Leicester University have received a highly prestigious Innovation Fellowship to develop commercial applications for a unique method of identifying pregnant women at risk of having premature babies. Justin Konje, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Leicester University, has been looking at levels of a compound produced by the human body, which is very similar to cannabis.

Levels of these endocannabinoids fall during the early period of pregnancy and rise towards term. Measuring the endocannabinoid level in women who were delivering preterm, Professor Konje and his team discovered that the level of endocannabinoids was four times higher in those who went on to deliver compared to those who did not.

Since a large number of women go into hospital with preterm labour, but only a few actually go on to have premature babies, this may be one of the most reliable ways of distinguishing those who are going into early labour from those whose contractions will subside until later in the pregnancy.

The implications for this are highly significant, both in health management and in cost-effectiveness. Professor Konje commented:

" When women present with preterm labour, we need a test to tell us which ones will deliver and which ones will not so that we can plan their management.

_ But there is also a major cost factor in the management of these women and babies. In the UK 8% of babies are delivered prematurely but many more women present with signs of preterm labour. A day on the intensive care unit costs £1,000-£1,500, so knowing who actually needs this level of care would be a major step forward."

The award of the Innovation Fellowship is, he says, very exciting for his research team. Currently, it can take 12 hours to get results from a blood test. The funding will enable them to develop a means of monitoring monoclonal antibodies which could deliver the same result in 10-15 minutes.

The research is taking place at the University of Leicester and an international patent application has been filed. The University wants to license the technology to an industrial partner who can support its further development, such as full scale clinical trials.

Publication of Professor Konje's work in this field in the prestigious journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism recently won the highly prized Harold Malkin award, given for the highest quality research from universities in the UK.

Professor Konje leads the Endocannabinoid Research team of the Reproductive Sciences Section consisting of Professor Steve Bell, Dr Anthony Taylor and Professor Taylor, Dr Marcus Cooke, Dr. Mark Evans all of the Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine.

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