Preventing neurological injury for women with preeclampsia
In serious cases, preeclampsia can lead to seizures (eclampsia) in pregnant women. However, it is not known how often eclampsia and preeclampsia cause permanent brain damage. Lina Bergman’s international research aims to investigate underlying causes to eclampsia, determine persistent injury and evaluate new neuroprotective therapeutics for women with preeclampsia and eclampsia.
The European Research Council (ERC) is now investing Euro 1,5 million in Lina Bergman’s research over the course of five years, via an ERC Starting Grant.
“I’m delighted that research funding is being invested in women’s health and preeclampsia,” she says. “This is an area that has been significantly neglected, and one where we completely lack new medications to improve the prognosis for these women.”
Reducing brain damage
Lina is an associate professor in obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Gothenburg, and is affiliated with the University’s Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine (WCMTM). She is also an associate professor at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa.
Her research – which is being carried out both at the University of Gothenburg and in at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, has also been supported by a starting grant from the Swedish Research Council. It focuses on understanding how serious the long-term brain damage can be following eclampsia. New medications that can protect the brain and reduce the harm suffered by these women will also be trialled.
“We’ve made important discoveries at our Cape Town research centre about brain damage that occurs during the acute stage of the condition. However, we still don’t know how much of this damage remains following treatment.”
To find out how long-term the brain damage is, the researchers will monitor women from when they are diagnosed with eclampsia and will then examine them again after six months.
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“We will investigate whether they have scarring of the brain or cognitive problems, or whether there is residual inflammation in the brain.”
Medication trials
The ERC grant will also allow Lina to utilize the animal model for preeclampsia that she and her research team have developed and validated in the laboratory. The team will use an animal model of preeclampsia to trial various medications that can protect the brain in order to identify the best solution for pre-eclampsia, both during the acute stage and in the longer term.
“We are using an animal model that is as similar as possible to preeclampsia and have succeeded in validating it for brain damage with the same type of outcome as that which affects women with severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. We will now continue to trial medications that are already used during pregnancy, as well as medications that have shown promise in studies of other kinds of brain damage.”
Preeclampsia and eclampsia are one of the most common causes of death and illness for pregnant women, both in Sweden and worldwide. The condition causes blood pressure to rise, and can affect the kidneys and other maternal internal organs.
Preeclampsia affects almost four percent of all pregnant women in Sweden. Eclampsia is less common, affecting around 50 women each year in Sweden. In South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries, eclampsia is more common. This is probably largely due to the late detection of the condition.
