New Hope For Treating Perinatal Brain Injuries

Researchers have stumbled onto a new pathway to help treat perinatal brain injuries, including certain neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's.

"We would never have connected the dots between PIF and let-7 without prior knowledge and experience with let-7 and H19, a developmentally regulated gene that is highly expressed in the developing embryo," said senior author Yingqun Huang, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine, in a news release.

With the help of a rat perinatal brain injury model, they discovered that sPIF could rescue damaged neurons and reduce inflammation.
MicroRNA let-7 causes that death of neurons in the central nervous system, allowing researchers to use a synthetic molecule that's derived from the embryo Prelmplantation PreImplantation Factor (sPIF) protects against neuronal death and brain injury by targeting let-7.

"For the first time, we have clear indication to pursue a new line of investigation in the treatment of perinatal brain injury, and possibly traumatic brain injury," added co-author Michael Paidas, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. 

Based on this promising data, the FDA has awarded sPIF fast-track designation and allowed a phase 1 sPIF clinical trial to treat patients with autoimmune liver disease at the University of Miami. 

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.