HORMONE-blocking drugs could stop premature labour, say Australian
researchers who have successfully delayed normal labour in sheep by a week.
Many babies die because they are born prematurely, but physicians can’t delay
it by more than a day or two. Adam McCluskey and his colleagues at the
University of Newcastle in New South Wales decided to try a chemical called
antalarmin that reduces levels of CRH, a hormone that occurs at high levels in
women with early labour. Six pregnant sheep were given antalarmin in a solution
of ethanol and castor oil.
These sheep gave birth to healthy lambs a week later than controls, McCluskey
told the International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Edinburgh last week.
The team is now developing water-soluble drugs that could be given to pregnant
women.
