Validation of the guinea-pig as an appropriate model for human labour: HDAC inhibitors as tocolytics for preterm labour.

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Preterm labour (PTL) continues to be a major complication of pregnancy in the 21st Century for which there is no broadly effective therapeutic clinical strategy. Whilst most infants are delivered at the end of a full-term pregnancy, nearly 60,000 per year in the UK are born early because the mother goes into labour too soon. Prematurely born children may face a high risk of disability and life-long ill health. However, despite intensive research we remain unable to prevent PTL. One of the fundamental problems is our poor understanding of the co-ordinated contractions in the muscles of the uterus which lead to delivery and how to inhibit them with drugs. This failure is also linked to a lack of suitable animal models reflective of human labour in which we can develop new drug therapies for PTL. This Collaborative Project Grant brings together international experts with the common goal of addressing these issues. In particular, we will test our suggestion that the pregnant guinea pig serves as a useful model uterine contraction and human labour over that of currently favoured rodent models. We will do this by examining if new drugs that inhibit a class of molecules known as HDACs can actually reduce the incidence or severity of PTL in this guinea pig model. If so, they will offer new possibilities for the clinical treatment in humans of PTL.