60,000 children are born prematurely in France each year. Trials will soon take place to try to overcome a deficiency in nitric oxide which causes learning difficulties in these premature babies. The details of Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at the Magazine de la Santé on France 5.
franceinfo: A clinical trial is even about to begin?
Geraldine Zamansky: This trial should actually start at Lille University Hospital in the next two weeks. It’s the . Hope comes from the discovery of the cause of a rare hormonal disease, and especially its involvement in the development of the brain of premature babies.
This cause, deciphered by the team of Vincent Prévot, at Inserm, is a deficiency in nitric oxide. This name may remind you of your old chemistry lessons, but stay focused, because here we are talking about a substance capable of regulating the activity of certain neurons. And this is only the beginning of this beautiful story that Vincent Prévot told me. Once this deficiency was identified, they gave nitric oxide to mice affected by this rare disease. And they healed.
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So, since this nitric oxide would also be responsible for certain difficulties of premature babies, should we give them some?
Exactly. The clinical trial will begin at the University Hospital of Lille because it is on its site that the laboratory of Vincent Prévot is located. When he spoke about his discovery to the pediatricians who deal with premature babies, they reacted very quickly. Indeed, Dr. Kevin Le Duc, one of the pediatricians, explained to me that they already use nitric oxide to treat another problem. A very simplified problem of “starting” breathing in certain premature babies.
So it’s much easier to test than with an unknown treatment?
You still have to go through all the legislation of a clinical trial of course. But not to offer parents a new additional treatment. When their child is already receiving nitric oxide to breathe better, the trial just asks to be able to assess its effectiveness on brain development. But there is no need to wait for these infants to start school to find out if they have less difficulty.
Because remember, everything starts from a common problem with the rare disease: a hormonal imbalance in premature babies. So it will be enough to measure its improvement by blood tests. The trial simply provides for two years of follow-up!
>>> The study by Vincent Prévot’s team at Inserm
The Inserm press release