Chemical Compounds Appear to Protect a Fetus from Developing Cerebral Palsy

A team of scientists has recently created two chemical compounds which appear to protect a fetus from developing cerebral palsy from a lack of oxygen.

"It is known that if you have too much nitric oxide in the brain, which can be produced during hypoxia, it leads to fetal neuro-degeneration," said lead researcher Richard B. Silverman, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University.

If such an event occurs during pregnancy, it can lead to brain damage in the fetus that can result in cerebral palsy, Silverman said. "This can happen right at the end of pregnancy," he explained.

The common causes of hypoxia include a pinched umbilical cord or a cord which is wrapped around the fetus's neck or shoulder. This report was published on-line Wednesday in the Annuls of Neurology.

Silverman's team developed two compounds that block an enzyme in brain cells that produces nitric oxide. At normal levels, nitric oxide is a neurotransmitter, which is important for brain functioning, however, at high levels in can damage brain tissue. Excessive nitric oxide in the brain is believed to play a role in cerebral palsy.

In several of the experiments with rabbits, excess nitric oxide caused most of the fetuses to die and those that survived were left severely brain-damaged, Silverman said.

Silverman said that he believes the compounds may be used to treat infants with compromised oxygen levels prior to cesarean delivery. "The sooner you can protect the fetal brain from nitric oxide, the less neuro-degeneration you will have," he said.

The logical next step will be to experiment with these compounds in sheep, Silverman said.

Cerebral palsy is caused by an injury to the brain prior, during or just after birth, although it is not typically diagnosed until after the age of 1. Around 750,000 children and adults in the United States have a form of cerebral palsy, with many of them having been born with the condition.