Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications

Good news! This could be a breakthrough!

"In a study published today [8/31/2026] ... scientists who analyzed blood samples from thousands of pregnant women found that low levels of a protein called ISM2 during the first trimester were associated with higher risk of both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction later on.

Follow-up lab studies of placental cells showed ISM2 likely plays a causal role in the disorders, meaning the findings could help in the development of treatments, too. ...

The researchers measured blood levels of nearly 3000 proteins and found one in particular associated with both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction: ISM2, a little-studied protein produced by the placenta. Specifically, lower blood levels of the protein at the 12-week blood test were linked to higher risks of preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, or both. ...

What’s more, ISM2 levels were a better predictor of each condition than currently used proteins. ...

In lab experiments, the team found that blocking the production of ISM2 in stem cells that usually develop into normal, uterus-invading EVTs stopped that process from happening.

By contrast, artificially adding ISM2 into a cell line that usually lacks it induced recipient cells to migrate around lab dishes more like EVTs would. ..."

"... Both of these conditions are known to be linked to problems with the placenta not developing properly early in pregnancy, in particular a failure of specialised placental cells known as the extravillous trophoblast (EVT) to invade the mother’s womb and establish a healthy blood supply. ...

Of all mammals, humans have the deepest placental invasion, which reflects the massive demands of oxygen and nutrients required to manufacture the most complex machine ever known, the human brain. ..."

From the abstract:

"Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (FGR) are major causes of global morbidity and mortality. 

Both conditions are associated with impaired invasion of the uterus by extravillous trophoblast (EVT).

We performed proteomics in maternal serum obtained at ~12 weeks of gestational age in a prospective pregnancy cohort (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study). Here we show that low maternal serum isthmin-2 (ISM2) was the strongest protein signal (out of 2,904) in the first trimester of pregnancy for preeclampsia or FGR.

We validated the association in two independent cohorts (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study 2 and Improving Maternal Pregnancy And Child ouTcomes study).

ISM2 protein and mRNA are almost exclusively produced in the placenta, and, within the placenta, ISM2 mRNA is highly enriched in EVT. 

Knocking down ISM2 in cultured human trophoblast stem cells profoundly inhibited EVT invasion.

Conversely, expressing ISM2 in a cell line lacking endogenous ISM2 (HEK293 cells) promoted migration.

We conclude that ISM2 may be causally involved in the early pathophysiology of failed trophoblast invasion and that the protein and its associated pathways are potential targets for the prediction and prevention of preeclampsia and FGR."

Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications | Science | AAAS "Low levels of a placenta made protein predict preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction and could offer new target for prevention"

Pre-eclampsia discovery could lead to new test and treatments for at-risk pregnancies (original news release) "Cambridge scientists have identified a key protein that could act as a predictor for pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction, two of the major causes of stillbirth and of sickness among mothers and newborns."

Isthmin-2 is a first-trimester predictor of preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (open access)

Fig. 2: The association between ISM2 and PE and FGR.

Fig. 3: ISM2 regulates EVT differentiation.

Nearly 94 million of the estimated 154 million lives saved since 1974 resulted from measles vaccine protection. Really!

Sorry, but this seems not not very impressive given that between 6.5 and 7 billion babies were born since 1974 (according to Google Search).

How many children suffered from or were killed by measle vaccinations during the same time period? I had a multi prompt dialog with Google AI about this question. It appears there are no reliable statistical data available at least not on a global scale or such data is simply not collected. However, Google AI points out there are severe allergic reactions associated with measle vaccination and that improper handling of the vaccination can cause serious complications etc. We are to believe that measles vaccinations are safe anywhere in the world. 

Global Health NOW: Afghanistan, Five Years On; and An Overdose Prevention Tool Taken Off the Table

Global infant mortality further reduced in 2024

 Good news! Impressive! Still to many young children die every year!

But progress is slow, only about 230,000 fewer death per year on average from 1990-2024!

"According to recently updated UNICEF data, 4.9 million children under the age of 5 died in 2024, down from 13 million in 1990." (Source)

"An estimated 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns, according to new estimates released today. Most of these deaths are [easily] preventable with proven, low-cost interventions and access to quality health care. ..."

Progress in reducing child deaths slows as 4.9 million children under five die in 2024 "New UN report on child mortality fully assesses leading causes of under five deaths for first time"

The Link Between Maternal Drug Use and Rising Infant Mortality

Recommendable, but disturbing!

"... The leading causes of infant mortality in Mississippi, however, point to drug abuse. The statement mentions “congenital malformations, preterm birth, low birth weight and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).” It does not mention that each of these conditions is strongly connected to—if not directly created by—parental substance use.

Prenatal alcohol and drug exposure is linked to congenital anomalies, impaired fetal growth, preterm delivery, and low birth weight. One largescale review found a fourfold increased risk of neonatal death and a nearly doubled risk of preterm birth among infants prenatally exposed to opioids. And while SIDS is often assumed to occur largely at random, a recent meta-analysis found that infants exposed to drugs in utero died of SIDS—or had deaths classified as SIDS—at seven times the rate of infants not exposed. In a prospective study of infants reported to Child Protective Services at or shortly after birth, the subsequent rate of SIDS/SUID (Sudden Unexpected Infant Death) was three times that of infants not reported, even after adjusting for other risk factors.  ..."

The Link Between Maternal Drug Use and Rising Infant Mortality | American Enterprise Institute - AEI

Bat Declines Linked to increased Infant Mortality in the U.S. Really!

Seems to be a case of pseudo science! This research seems to be driven by ideological goals and personal preferences of the scientist and not by science!

I have serious doubts that this study would pass scrutiny! We are talking here about 121 infant deaths per year across the entire U.S. between 2006-2017. The author did not explicitly rule out e.g. if there were any serious child disease epidemics during this 11 year period that may have caused excessive deaths etc. On average there were 70 million children total per year during this period. Infant mortality is roughly 20 thousand per year in 2022.

"A “groundbreaking” study showing the connection between bats’ decline in the U.S. and infant mortality is the latest to demonstrate the stark toll of imbalanced ecosystems. 

According to the research, published last week in Science, a decline in bat populations due to a fungal disease led farmers in 245 counties to increase their use of insecticides by 31% to combat an increase in insect activity.

In those same counties, infant mortality rose by ~8%—accounting for 1,334 infant deaths—from 2006 to 2017. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

White-nose syndrome has caused declines in bat species across North America. Because bats typically prey on agricultural insect pests, this decline can be treated as a natural experiment to quantify the costs associated with the loss of an important ecosystem service. Frank used quasi-experimental methods to investigate how insecticide use can compensate for the loss of natural pest control from bats by considering both the economic and health costs of insecticides (see the Policy Forum by Larsen et al.). County-level insecticide use and infant mortality due to internal causes both increased after the emergence of white-nose syndrome, whereas farms’ crop revenue decreased. This study provides an example of how biodiversity loss affects human well-being and presents observational methods for quantifying those costs.

Structured Abstract

INTRODUCTION

...  Specifically, I use the sudden emergence of a deadly wildlife disease in insect-eating bats—known as white-nose syndrome—to quantify the benefits from their provision of biological pest control. I validate previous theoretical predictions that farmers respond by substituting bats with insecticides; however, because those are toxic compounds, by design, this substitution leads to higher human infant mortality rates in the areas affected by the bat die-offs.

RATIONALE

...

RESULTS

I used annual data at the county level on insecticide use and estimated that after the onset of bat die-offs, farmers in the county increase their insecticide use by 31.1%, on average. This demonstrates the substitution between a declining natural input and a human-made input—providing the first empirical validation of a fundamental theoretical prediction in environmental economics. I proceeded to document that infant mortality rates due to internal causes of death (i.e., not due to accidents or homicides) increased by 7.9%, on average, in the affected counties. This result highlights that real-world use levels of insecticides have a detrimental impact on health, even when used within regulatory limits, which highlights the difficulties of assessing the public health impacts of pesticides when regulating them individually.

The staggered expansion of the wildlife disease supports the causal interpretation of the results. Any additional alternative explanation would need to change along the expansion path of the wildlife disease around the same timing of its expansion. In additional analyses, I demonstrate that changes in crop composition, in other types of mortality, or in economic conditions fail to explain the observed results, even when controlling for fine-scaled and flexible time trends.

CONCLUSION

These findings help validate previous theoretical predictions regarding well-functioning ecosystems, where interactions between natural enemies—insect-eating bats and crop pests—allow farmers to use lower amounts of toxic substitutes. Not only are these results informative about natural enemy interactions generally, and biological pest control more specifically, they also highlight the direct agricultural and health benefits that bats provide. ...

Improving our understanding of how changes in biodiversity affect human well-being will be important when designing and implementing conservation policies. These findings inform ongoing efforts, such as pursuing the ambitious goal to place 30% of land and marine areas under protection by 2030, and highlight the importance of continued monitoring of biodiversity levels, as in the assessments released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services."

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The economic impacts of ecosystem disruptions: Costs from substituting biological pest control (no public access)

Schematic framework linking the ecosystem and human health as being intermediated by the agricultural system.

One-time gene editing therapy for spinal muscular atrophy

Good news!

"A single application of a gene-editing therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic cause of death in infants, treated the disease in mice. Researchers used base editing, a genome-editing approach that involves parts of the CRISPR system along with other enzymes, to restore levels of a protein whose lack is responsible for the condition. The therapy extended the lives of mice with the disease from 28 days to more than 100 days."

From the abstract:

"Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of infant mortality, arises from SMN protein insufficiency following SMN1 loss. Approved therapies circumvent endogenous SMN regulation and require repeated dosing or may wane. We describe genome editing of SMN2, an insufficient copy of SMN1 harboring a C6>T mutation, to permanently restore SMN protein levels and rescue SMA phenotypes. We used nucleases or base editors to modify five SMN2 regulatory regions. Base editing converted SMN2 T6>C, restoring SMN protein levels to wild-type. AAV9-mediated base editor delivery in Δ7SMA mice yielded 87% average T6>C conversion, improved motor function, and extended average lifespan, which was enhanced by one-time base editor+nusinersen co-administration (111 versus 17 days untreated). These findings demonstrate the potential of a one-time base editing treatment for SMA."

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Base editing rescue of spinal muscular atrophy in cells and in mice (no public access)