Gene boost to cut stillbirths

LONDON scientists are close a breakthrough gene therapy for a condition which causes 1,000 miscarriages and stillbirths each year.

A team from University College Hospital is hoping to start a trial later this year of drugs to prevent severe foetal growth restriction.

The condition occurs because of reduced blood flow to the placenta. It affects more than 1,000 pregnancies in Britain each year resulting in stillbirth, miscarriage and enforced abortions.

The treatment, developed jointly with biotechnology company Ark Therapies, uses a genetically engineered virus to deliver extra copies of a gene that promotes blood flow to the mother's uterine arteries, in the hope that it would get the foetus growing again.