Preterm birth is defined as the birth of an infant before 37 weeks of pregnancy. According to the National Vital Statistics Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of preterm births in the United States rose to 10.02% in 2018.

As the number of preterm births in the U.S. continues to increase, experts have put their efforts into studying its underlying causes and possible treatment to lessen, if not completely prevent the occurrence of such cases.

Researchers have discovered a familiar molecular pathway in women who experience preterm labor and are using this information to develop new treatments for a woman who goes through early labor.

Dr. Scott Barnett from the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, said that they successfully identified an abnormality in the uterus of women who experience preterm labor. Additionally, they also found that FDA-approved drugs classically used to treat other disorders can be used to target the said pathway. Scientists claim that the drugs are extremely effective at stopping contractions.

Dr. Barnett was supposed to present the research at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics annual meeting in San Diego this month, however, was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The research team's abstract was published in this month's issue of The FASEB Journal.

The researchers identified four drugs that spot the problematic molecular pathway in the uterus and tested them on small pieces of uterine muscle donated by women who had a cesarean section.

Although all four drugs decreased contractions, contractions were almost completely stopped with the combined administration of the FDA-approved beta-blocker nebivolol and the small molecule N6022.

N6022 inhibits S-nitrosoglutathione reductase, an essential egulator of smooth muscle tone and inflammation. It was also subjected to clinical trials for the treatment of asthma.

Dr. Barnett and his team plan to further examine the candidate drugs in an animal model of preterm labor to tell whether they affect birth timing and the health of the offspring. The researchers are also continuing to develop new chemical compounds that pinpoint the uterine pathway they identified.

Preterm Birth in America

Stacey Stewart, the president of the March of Dimes, said that the increase in the preterm birth rate is a distressing indication that the health of pregnant women and babies in our country is not heading upward.

She adds that preterm birth is the leading cause of death among babies and is one of the causes of lifelong disabilities. March of Dimes is a charity focused on ending birth defects and promoting the health of mothers and babies.

According to the CDC, preterm birth and low birth weight accounted for about 17% of infant deaths in 2017. Babies who survive could develop health problems in the future, including developmental delay, breathing and hearing problems, feeding difficulties, visual complications, and cerebral palsy.

Another issue America is currently facing is pregnancy among teenagers. In 2017, the CDC reports that a total of 194,377 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years, yielding a birth rate of 18.8 per 1,000 women in this age group.

A study's findings suggest that adolescence may be a sensitive period for the risk of preterm birth among adolescents exposed to stressful life events prior to conception. The study was published in a publication of the American Public Health Association