Preeclampsia: A Health Concern for Pregnant Women

For years, the medical field has searched for an answer to one of the more alarming complications of pregnancy: preeclampsia.

This condition is marked by elevated blood pressure and the presence of protein in urine, among other symptoms. If left unchecked, preeclampsia can escalate into eclampsia—a serious medical issue that could lead to seizures, strokes, or even death. Shocking statistics reveal that around 70,000 women and 500,000 fetuses succumb to this condition annually. While various treatments can help manage blood pressure, the only definitive solution remains childbirth, and preeclampsia can reappear afterwards.

And there’s a catch: if an expectant mother has to deliver prematurely, the babies could face serious health challenges, such as vision issues, breathing difficulties, brain swelling, and, tragically, death.

Recently, research from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles suggests promise in a new treatment aimed at addressing the root cause of preeclampsia. This small study, which was published in Nature Medicine, examined data from 16 women affected by the condition.

Dr. Ananth Karumanchi, who heads the Renovascular Research Center at Cedars-Sinai and co-authored the study, explains that one theory behind the onset of preeclampsia suggests that a dysfunctional placenta produces a harmful protein called sFlt-1. However, developing a treatment for this has been tricky, given the hesitance to experiment with pregnant women.

“When considering medication for a pregnant woman, it’s crucial to evaluate not only immediate safety but also long-term effects for both mother and baby,” he pointed out.

To combat this, Karumanchi and fellow researchers adopted a “subtraction” method inspired by dialysis. They designed a monoclonal antibody intended to bind with the troublesome protein. The process involved extracting blood from patients, filtering out the harmful protein, and then reintroducing the cleaned blood back into the patients.

This entire process took about two hours, and results were observable rather quickly.

Post-treatment, protein levels in participants dropped by roughly 17%. Interestingly, this decrease in protein correlated with reduced blood pressure. The women involved in the study managed to postpone delivery by an average of 10 days—twice as long as untreated cases.

While Karumanchi finds these findings intriguing, he acknowledges that further studies are necessary to validate the safety and effectiveness of the treatment.

Dr. Yalda Afshar, a UCLA Health obstetrician and gynecologist not involved in the research, emphasized that despite the small scale of the trial, it provides essential groundwork for future investigations and takes a new approach by directly targeting the cause of the issue.

“What’s particularly important is that, for the first time, we’re actively removing the disease from the mother instead of just having to remove the mother from the disease,” she said.

Caitlin Dirvonas, a mother from Phoenix who experienced preeclampsia in all three of her pregnancies, shared her perspective. Her first child was born at just 27 weeks due to severe preeclampsia and spent 75 days in the NICU. She remarked that a treatment helping to delay premature delivery—even by a few days—could be monumental.

“Every single day matters at that stage, especially for brain and lung development,” she noted.