COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M University researchers at Irma Lerma Rangel School of Pharmacy are working to detect and treat dangerous pregnancy complications earlier than ever before.
"So we're trying to do something it's called Mi RNA therapeutics, which is epigenetic therapeutics," explained Associate Professor Mahua Choudhury. Which is very new and novel. If it's successful, it can be a novel drug to treat the preeclampsia patient."
Dr. Choudhury is an associate professor in pharmaceutical sciences at Texas A&M. Her lab aims to find therapeutic m-RNA-based medicine in hopes of developing a quick, non-invasive test to detect preeclampsia in early pregnancy.
"Now we are looking into week nine when they're very healthy, and we found some indicators, which can tell this pregnant woman might become preeclamptic in 10-12 weeks," Choudhury said.
Preeclampsia is a high blood pressure disorder that can occur during pregnancy. By detecting it in the early stages of pregnancy, these researchers hope they can prevent it or maybe reverse it to improve pregnancy for both a mother and her child.
"Epigenetics is the organization of our genetics and our genes," explained first-year Ph.D. student Lauren Gladwell. "Rather than altering the sequence itself, you're altering how it's organized, which allows genes to be expressed or suppressed and that's what can potentially lead to different disease states."
The lab recently secured a patent for the epigenetic and microRNA biomarkers associated with pregnancy complications which will hopefully help them change the world.
"If this is successful, it can revolutionize pregnancy complication research because it was out of a box idea, and also it can help the pregnant woman. Specifically, because there is no cure," Choudhury said.