Endometriosis currently affects one in 10 women on average. It results from the abnormal migration of tissues from the endometrium (the muscle that makes up the uterus) during menstruation, to the ovaries, the digestive system, the kidneys, etc. It is a condition that affects women of childbearing age and is characterized by inflammation of the tissues and severe pain often debilitating during menstruation, during sexual intercourse or even on a daily basis. At an advanced stage, adhesions created between organs often lead to infertility (40% of cases).
Block estrogen receptors rather than suppressing them
While no truly effective treatment has yet emerged, researchers at the University of Illinois (United States) have developed two promising molecules to reduce inflammation.
Published in the scientific journal Science Translational Medicine, the study was carried out on mice as well as on human endometriotic cells cultured in vitro.
Both compounds (chloroindazole CLI and oxabicycloheptenesulfonate OBHS) work by blocking estrogen receptors, hormones that promote inflammation of endometriotic tissues. In this way, the growth of these painful tissues is prevented, as is the inflammation that they cause.
And that’s what the researchers observed after testing mice with endometriosis, as well as cultures of human endometriotic cells. Further tests showed that the mice born to the treated mice were doing well and had no infertility issues.
“Inflammation is the engine ofendometriosis. At some point, it must be removed, and these compounds achieve this by blocking estrogen receptors, ”summarizes Benita Katzenellenbogen, lead author of the study.
But if the results seem very encouraging, the researchers admit that there are still many years of work before a treatment is marketed.
With this approach, the inflammatory effect of estrogen is blocked, but not its production. The menstrual cycle is therefore functioning normally. Currently, patients are usually prescribed a pill (taken continuously) which blocks the production of estrogen and stops the progression of the disease. But these hormones have other roles in the human body, so removing them leads to side effects. “The current treatments have undesirable effects on other organs (bones, heart, brain), so they cannot be used for life”, stress the researchers.
They hope that these compounds will also be able to treat other pathologies involving inflammation due to estrogen, such as multiple sclerosis, liver fibrosis, inflammatory breast cancer or even metabolic and cardiovascular problems linked to obesity.
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