Penn Engineers have made a critical breakthrough that bridges a major healthy equity gap for pregnant people with pre-eclampsia, a condition that arises due to insufficient blood flow to the placenta and results in high maternal blood pressure and restricted blood flow to the fetus.

Pre-eclampsia is one of the leading causes of stillbirths and prematurity worldwide, and it occurs in 3% to 5% of pregnancies. Pregnant people diagnosed with pre-eclampsia early in pregnancy face higher risks for themselves and their babies, including severe health issues and death. Without a cure, options for these patients only treat symptoms, such as taking blood pressure medication, being on bed rest or delivering prematurely regardless of the viability of their baby. Making a decision to treat pre-eclampsia in any manner can be a moral conundrum for pregnant people already confronting many personal health decisions with long-standing impacts.

For Kelsey Swingle, a doctoral student in the lab of Michael Mitchell, an associate professor in bioengineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, these options are not enough. Swingle sees the gap in women's health care as a risk to society, and the uncured and complex conditions that pregnant people face as medical research challenges that are long overdue for real, engineered solutions.

In previous research, Swingle conducted a successful proof-of-concept study that examined a library of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the delivery molecules that helped get the mRNA of the COVID vaccine into cells, and their ability to reach the placenta in pregnant mice. In astudypublished in Nature, Swingle examined 98 different LNPs and their ability to get to the placenta and decrease high blood pressure and increase vasodilation in pre-eclamptic pregnant mice. Her work shows that the best LNP for the job was one that mediates more than 100-fold greater mRNA delivery to the placenta in pregnant mice than an FDA-approved LNP formulation.

"Our LNP was able to deliver an mRNA therapeutic that reduced maternal blood pressure through the end of gestation and improved fetal health and blood circulation in the placenta," says Swingle. "Additionally, at birth we saw an increase in litter weight of the pups, which indicates a healthy mom and healthy babies. I am very excited about this work and its current stage because it could offer a real treatment for pre-eclampsia in human patients in the very near future."

Read more at Penn Engineering Today.