Top

Indian scientists discover cause for preterm births

Every year, 15 million babies are born preterm. This is more than 1 in every 10 babies.

Chennai: In a new study which eventually can bring down the pre-term births and neonate deaths, Indian scientists have discovered that the tiny toxic balloons emitted by the bacterium can cause preterm birth and stillbirths.

According to reports, preterm delivery is the single largest cause of death among neonates and young children. During a collaborative study between Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC), National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH) and IIT-Bombay, it was found that a class of bacteria called group B Streptococcus (GBS) produces membrane-bound vesicles which move from the vagina to the uterus and cause inflammation of the membranes surrounding the foetus, leading to preterm and stillbirths.

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a type of bacterial infection found in a pregnant woman’s vagina or rectum. While most women are asymptomatic, many women with GBS deliver preterm, but the infection is rarely found in the womb.

The researchers from IIT Bombay wondering how the GBS sitting at a distant place can cause preterm births, started growing GBS in liquid media. When they removed the bacteria and examined the remaining liquid by electron microscopy, they found numerous small spherical structures. In the surface of growing bacteria, vesicles were seen just budding off the bacterial cell, confirming that GBS produces membrane bound vesicles (MVs).

“This was a breakthrough in my lab as these vesicles were found to be loaded with tonnes of bacterial virulence factors, particularly toxins and collagen-degrading proteases,” Professor Anirban Banerjee, a microbiologist from IIT Bombay told Deccan Chronicle.

The researchers then deposited the MVs without the bacteria into mouse vagina and hours later they found them throughout the uterus and in the developing fetus. “Not only these MVs could reach the feto-maternal barrier, but they lower the elasticity of the membrane holding the foetus so that it can’t expand to accommodate the growing foetus leading to its rupture and preterm birth,” said Deepak Modi, one of the co-authors and a reproductive biologist from the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH).

Acknowledging the gap between the experimental results in mice and human pathogenesis, Anirban Banerjee said this discovery is a paradigm shift as it shows how GBS by simply sitting in the vagina can damage the baby in the womb without even physically going there and cause preterm birth.

“In our next step we plan to do a study among the pregnant women in India to know whether they carry GBS and if yes, how many of them carry and those who carry give preterm birth or not,” he added. “This will pave the way to discover new drugs to halt the vesicle production by GBS. But it is not in the near future,” he said.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
Next Story