Combating Endometriosis Natural Remedies
The Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine of Argentina (IBYME-CONICET) develops compounds from grapes and green tea to combat endometriosis, a disease that affects a million Argentine and can cause acute pelvic pain and infertility. The experimental results are very encouraging.
The effectiveness of these natural compounds was tested on cells from patients affected by endometriosis and in female mice. “Almost 20 years have studied this benign disease, characterized by the presence of foci of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. This is the focus of research in our lab, “said Dr. Rosa Inés Barañao of IBYME-CONICET.
“Current treatments are costly and bloody,” the agency added Barañao CTyS. That is why the development of drugs based on natural elements, cost less than those found in the market and generate no side effects, would be a great help to the Argentine million suffering from this disease.
The results in the pilot phase are very encouraging. “The idea is to find therapeutic alternatives to currently available to counter this disease that can cause infertility and affects 10% of women of childbearing age,” said researcher Gabriela Meresman CONICET.
Endometriosis is a recurrent disease and many young women should be treated throughout their reproductive life, so it is necessary that the medication is as safe as possible, ie, that does not generate side effects.
“In women with acute or chronic pain, we try to directly attack treatment to his injuries and did not affect the menstrual cycle, because otherwise it inhibits the possibility of pregnancy,” he added Meresman. In fact, one of the objectives is that pregnant women not be forced to discontinue treatment during pregnancy.
In the IBYME analyze the factors that promote proliferation of endometrium outside the uterine cavity and, to counteract the disease, studying the effects of different drugs, some based on natural elements, such as resveratrol, a polyphenol present in grapes and wines, and EGCG, found in green tea, for example.
The endometrium in question has special characteristics that enable the development of the disease: its cells grow and die less than normal, which is technically defined as a slow process of apoptosis.
Investigators trying to determine the causes and investigate irregularities in cytokine levels and the function of macrophages and NK cells responsible for nonspecific immune system, and the presence of aromatase P450, which is essential in the biosynthesis of estrogen. “Our first investigations were based on what happens in the peritoneal environment, especially from the immunological point of view. But then we noticed that there were also changes in the eutopic endometrium, the lining of the uterus, “said Barañao.
The test IBYME natural compounds in cells from patients affected by this disease, as well as in female mice Balb / C, which they should induce artificial endometriosis, through surgery.
For cell culture, it is important the contribution of gynecologists Federal Capital and Greater Buenos Aires as part of the Sociedad Argentina de Endometriosis (SAE), which, after carrying out biopsies in patients with endometriosis, they provide a small fraction tissue to IBYME.
The other line of research for the development of new therapeutic uses of animal facilities. Since endometriosis develops only in humans and some monkeys, and would be very difficult to work with primates, scientists IBYME cause disease in female mice, artificially, through surgery. After this surgery, researchers can perform in vivo studies on possible medical treatments, and their results were very good.
“On this animal model we have achieved important growth inhibitions of endometriotic lesions by inhibiting some specific molecules involved in the pathogenesis, ie the direct cause for the generation of endometriosis,” said Meresman.
IBYME scientists have another strategy: to control angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels, since the lesions produced by this disease need to survive in a vascularized ectopic site. The results of experiments and laboratory animal cells are very promising and, as anticipated Meresman, are already close to achieving the transfer to the clinic.