Collaborators at Cottage Health System and UC Santa Barbara's College of Engineering have identified biomarkers that may yield a revolutionary diagnostic test for pre-eclampsia, the most common dangerous complication of pregnancy. Pre-eclampsia can lead to eclampsia, which carries a maternal mortality rate of 1.8 percent worldwide.
Through a partnership funded by the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Research Grant Program, the study was led by Alex Soffici, MD, perinatologist with Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and Patrick Daugherty, PhD, professor and vice-chair of the chemical engineering department at UCSB. Plasma samples were collected over a period of two years from both normal-outcome and pre-eclampsia pregnancy patients at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and then analyzed by UCSB graduate researcher Serra Elliott to identify candidate biomarkers.
The group discovered that certain antibodies are present in the blood of patients with pre-eclampsia, but not in women with healthy pregnancies. The results suggest that this new diagnostic test could effectively distinguish pre-eclampsia syndrome from conditions with similar symptoms. The collaborators’ research continues in an ongoing study.
“We developed a separation process to sift through enormous numbers of distinct molecules present in blood to identify those few that are uniquely present in patients with pre-eclampsia,” explains Dr. Daugherty. “Since our process simultaneously identifies biochemical reagents that can capture the disease biomarkers, there is an opportunity to create an effective diagnostic test for this prevalent disorder and possibly for other diseases where definitive tests are not yet available.” Learn more about the study, its authors, and its sponsors.
