Vanderbilt receives $3.3 million grant to develop medications for preventing preterm birth

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is receiving $3.3 million over two years through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health's (ARPA-H) Sprint for Women's Health for its early-stage research efforts to develop medications designed to suppress premature uterine contractions during pregnancy.

ARPA-H's Sprint for Women's Health is designed to address critical unmet challenges in women's health, champion transformative innovations, and tackle health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women.

Jennifer Herington, PhD, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, and Todd Giorgio, PhD, professor of Biomedical Engineering, joined forces four years ago to begin developing innovative uterine-targeted delivery systems for therapeutics known as tocolytics, which are medications designed to suppress premature uterine contractions during pregnancy.

The heartbreak and costs of preterm birth are enormous. Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal and child deaths under the age of 5, and survivors of preterm birth may face lifelong health challenges."

Jennifer Herington, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology

Every year, approximately 15 million pregnancies worldwide end prematurely, before 37 weeks of gestation.

The United States has one of the highest rates of preterm births among high-resource countries, with 1 in every 10 women delivering prematurely. The estimated societal economic loss in the U.S. is approximately $25 billion, which includes medical costs, educational expenses and lost productivity.

The current standard of care limits the use of tocolytic agents to just 24-72 hours because of potential side effects for both the mother and the fetus. However, many women may benefit from weeks of tocolysis, rather than just days, to prolong their pregnancies and allow crucial development of significant organs, such as the brain, lungs and liver.

According to Herington, the approach of targeting medication directly to the uterus aims to improve maternal and fetal safety, allowing for the long-term use of existing tocolytics.

"We are dedicated to developing novel uterine-targeted tocolytic delivery systems that can be used at home," Giorgio said. "This method is particularly beneficial for low-resource settings and ideally suited for the long-term management of preterm labor, potentially enabling patients to receive treatment at home without the need for regular visits to a healthcare facility."

Herington and Giorgio have partnered with DavosPharma to develop drug conjugates that serve as a uterine-targeted tocolytic delivery system. DavosPharma's strategic partner, Kemp Proteins, will be responsible for delivering key biological components for the therapeutic.

Drug conjugates are an advanced approach for delivering cytotoxic agents directly to tumors. This targeted approach helps reduce side effects and enhances treatment responses compared to conventional chemotherapy. Herington and Giorgio's project will be the first to apply drug conjugates in the field of obstetrics.

"I am so proud of the work that Drs. Herington and Giorgio are doing to address the critical needs in prevention of preterm birth," said J Newton, MD, PhD, FACOG, vice chair of Clinical Obstetrics and collaborator on this project. "These are highly innovative and extremely talented scientists who are needed to develop new treatments for preterm labor."