JAMAICAN RESEARCHERS have discovered the presence of proteins that cause a life-threatening condition to develop in pregnant women.
According to Dr. Gregory Simpson, Jamaican chemist and a member of the Genomic Physiology Group at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the findings or the group's research on the disease preeclampsia, which he termed a "pregnancy induced hypertensive condition".
He says another Jamaican, Professor John Fray, who heads the Genomic Physiology Group, has been involved in researching the disease for at least eight years, while he, (Dr. Simpson) has been working with the search team for two and a half years.
In a recent interview with the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), Dr. Simpson explained that preeclampsia manifested itself through elevated blood pressure, protein in the urine, swelling of joints, and low birth weight of the foetus.
He said that the exact causes of this disease were unknown, but there were several factors that may cause some women to develop preeclampsia during their pregnancy. These factors included the presence of hypertension, and cardiac or diabetic conditions before pregnancy. These factors, he pointed out, made women, especially first-time mothers, particularly susceptible to the disease.
Dr. Simpson stated that approximately 10 per cent of all first-time pregnancies worldwide are likely to experience preeclampsia, and about 15 per cent of these women will develop severe preeclampsia.
Giving details of the medical condition, the doctor said that during the first phases of the investigations, research was carried out on laboratory rats that were substituted for humans. He explained that the rats had to reflect similar conditions that are present in human beings, to be an effective model and then they are tested to see probable causes of the disease.
The scientist said that the research team had identified an animal model that displayed very similar features to preeclampsia in human beings, and so tests were carried out on this animal.
"What we have been able to identify from this animal model is that there are specific proteins that are present in the blood of these animals that should not be there, and we believe that these proteins are some of the contributing factors to this particular problem," Dr. Simpson observed.
The second phase of this research involved matching the presence of the proteins found in the animal model, to proteins found in women who experienced preeclampsia. Similarities were found in both cases.
Dr. Simpson conceded that he and his research partners had not yet solved the enigma of preeclampsia, but he is heartened that his research is making progress.
"It is very difficult to solve this complicated problem, but what we have been able to find are proteins that we believe play a part in the disease, and we are now in a position whereby we can start probing those proteins to find out whether or not we can use them as early markets for this condition," he said.
The researcher stated that although research on preeclampsia had been conducted for a number of years, the proteins, which he and his team had found, had never been identified or associated with this condition before.
He further explained that finding a cure for this disease was very important, not only because it could lead to death, but it also affected the foetus. This manifested itself through lower levels of brain development in the unborn child, which leads to learning problems, as the child grows older.
"People who are interested in ensuring that their society has the best trained minds are going to be interested in diseases like this because it affects the child population and thus affects the ability of our children to learn," said the researcher.
Dr. Simpson noted that future research would focus on identifying key markers or indicators of the disease that physicians could use as tools to assist in the early identification of this condition.
The research team is hoping that they will make headway with these indicators within the next two years, as early diagnosis of the disease in the early stages of pregnancy could lead to early treatment.
Adding that Jamaica should invest in scientific research so as to become more self-reliant, Dr. Simpson said "we have a very unique opportunity to develop different types of treatment strategies with the knowledge of these particular genes and gene products, if we use what is endemic to Jamaica."
He cited Jamaica's natural product resources that may be used to "develop drugs and therapeutics for this condition." Dr. Simpson stressed, "if I had a dream, we would get more support to do that kind of work so that we can develop things for ourselves...for our people, the way it should be, the way everybody else does it."
Professor Fray and Dr. Simpson presented their research on this disease during the Scientific Research Council's (SRC) 16th Annual Science and Technology Conference, which was held from November 28-30, 2002 at the Knutsford Court Hotel, Kingston.
