Hope for premature babies as researchers discover ‘control switch’ on newborn brains
Melbourne researchers have discovered a ‘control switch’, which could revolutionise how premature babies’ brain injuries are treated.
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A potential new treatment after birth to protect the brains of premature babies is being developed after Melbourne researchers uncovered a “control switch” to turn off damage in the newborn brain.
One in 10 Australian babies are born early — nine million globally a year — with maternal infection a common cause.
These infants often suffer brain injuries when their immune system goes into overdrive to fight the infection, but there are no treatments to turn off this hyper response.
RMIT University scientists, working with European colleagues over the past seven years, have discovered how to calm down immune cells in the brain to prevent damage.
After successful tests in animals of an experimental drug, which is about to be used in the first human cancer trials, researchers are planning safety studies in infants.
Co-lead author and RMIT research fellow Bobbi Fleiss said being able to activate this immune control switch paved the way for protecting other vulnerable newborn brains in situations such as birth asphyxia and pregnancy trauma.
“Immune cells are very important for building the brain,” Dr Fleiss said.
“They’re like the site manager, in charge of making sure the right thing goes to the right place, and the rubbish is taken away.
“But once you switch them over into a hyperactive state, they stop doing their normal job. If we can switch these immune cells back across, they can get on with building the brain.”
By looking at brain scans and genetic tests of infants, they also found babies who were genetically programmed to have an easy-to-flick switch had a different brain structure and were more prone to injury.
“When a baby is born pre-term, some of them do (live) really well,” she said. “At the moment doctors can’t tell which ones will be which. We hope this study will allow doctors to have more information about who needs more help.”
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The findings were published in the journal Brain. The researchers have teamed with US drug delivery company Genisphere to further the research ready for clinical trials.
Shayna Quinn-Bowyer was hospitalised when her waters broke eight weeks early and she got steroid injections to boost her baby’s underdeveloped lungs.
Her son, Joplin, was born a week later after an infection-triggered labour.
Ms Quinn-Bowyer said more treatments to boost the organs of premature babies were desperately needed.
“Knowing he had been able to have his steroid shots gave me something to hold on to,” she said.