Pride 21 Study: Prenatal intervention for Neurodevelopment in Trisomy 21
At MELISA Institute, our job is to care for mothers and their unborn children. We believe that early interventions, whether as diagnosis or therapy, allow for a healthy pregnancy with the least possible risk to the mother. We have a line of ultra-early pregnancy diagnosis, based on protein and genetic biomarkers. We are also implementing the recovery of trophoblasts of the cervix.
In this area we are also developing, together with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit of the Hospital Austral in Buenos Aires, a study to use EGCG in third-trimester pregnant women with children with Down’s syndrome, to improve some aspects of neurodevelopment.
Down syndrome (DS) is a chromosomal abnormality caused by the presence of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is the most common chromosomal alteration in live births and is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability.
This condition is not only explained by the over-expression of genes on chromosome 21, but is being understood as a global problem in the cell’s gene expression. Among these genes is DYRK 1A, which encodes a protein involved in multiple processes related to brain development and formation. Despite this, resounding scientific evidence demonstrates that the extra genetic dosage, associated with the expression of genes in the additional copy of chromosome 21, can produce the phenotype of DS.
EGCG, the most important catechin in green tea, is a widely studied molecule with an inhibitor action on DYRK1A, which has shown beneficial effects in cellular, murine, and human models of DS. EGCG has an adequate safety profile, without teratogenic effects and with an adequate distribution in placental and fetal tissues.
Pride 21
Our team, in conjunction with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine unit of the Hospital Austral in Buenos Aires, is developing a protocol to use Previfenon® during the third trimester of pregnancy to obtain improvements in the development of the nervous system and in the intellectual and behavioral capacity of these children. This work has been encouraged by the use of EGCG in pregnant women during the third trimester, in cases of Gestational Diabetes and Preeclampsia, without deleterious effects on mothers or their unborn children.
