A widely used antimalarial drug could help alleviate one of the leading causes of infertility in women, early lab results show.
Artemisinin, a traditional Chinese herbal therapy, has long been proven to rapidly reduce the number of parasites in the blood of patients with malaria.
But a study in animals now suggests that the treatment could also help alleviate polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Tests on mice and rats by researchers in China have shown that it can reduce the amount of the hormone, androgen, produced in the ovaries by targeting a crucial enzyme in androgen production.
Experts today called the discovery ‘promising’, but warned that further research was crucial to determine the long-term effects of the treatment.
PCOS is expected to affect around one in ten women worldwide, but has come to the fore in recent years. Spice Girl, fashion mogul Victoria Beckham, famously opened up about her struggle to conceive with PCOS in the early 2000s
PCOS is expected to affect around one in ten women worldwide, but has come to the fore in recent years.
Spice Girl fashion mogul Victoria Beckham famously opened up about her struggle to conceive with PCOS in the early 2000s.
In 2016, Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley also revealed that the condition’s impact on her skin color made her “so self-conscious” that her sense of self-confidence was “in tatters.”
The exact cause of PCOS is unknown, but it often runs in families.
It is found in people who produce higher amounts of testosterone and androgen than average.
The condition causes cysts to develop on the ovaries, leading to a variety of hormonal symptoms and weight gain.
The researchers from Fudan University divided the four-week-old female mice and rats into two groups.
One was injected for two weeks with DHEA, a hormone produced by the body’s adrenal glands that reflects PCOS.
Both groups were then treated with artemether (ATM), a type of artemisinin.
The scientists found that the compound targeted CYP11A1, a crucial enzyme in androgen production.
It also improved LONP1, an enzyme that breaks down proteins and suppresses androgen production.
Writing in the diary, ScienceThe experts also said that metabolic tests on the mice showed that ATM had “no effect” on body weight, fat mass, lean mass or even glucose tolerance.
They added: ‘This discovery highlights a previously unknown interaction between LONP1 and CYP11A1 that is enhanced by artemisinins.’
In 2016, Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley also revealed that the condition’s impact on her skin color made her “so self-conscious” that her sense of self-confidence was “in tatters.”
Elisabet Stener-Victorin, an expert in reproductive endocrinology at the Karolinska Institutet, who was not involved in the study, said: ‘Although further studies will be needed to fully understand the long-term effects and to optimize dosing strategies to maximize therapeutic outcomes, Nevertheless, the discovery of artemisinins as effective remedies for PCOS represents a promising new approach for the development of specific therapies that will potentially change the landscape of PCOS treatment.”
It comes as scientists have repeatedly warned that resistance to artemisinin is spreading rapidly around the world.
Artemisinin causes damage to the proteins in the malaria parasite that kill the human cell.
But the mosquito-borne malaria parasite has developed a way to deal with the damage.