1 in 10 women suffer from endometriosis. Worrying right?

If endometriosis affects your life, you know you would try everything to manage the symptoms. What’s the worst part about this condition? It has no cure?.

This debilitating condition was highly researched in 2018, but scientists found few about its causes. Some of them claim that mutations in macrophages could be a cause for endometriosis. To come up with this conclusion, researchers from the Warwick and Edinburgh Universities tested on mice and found that a new treatment can target altered cells and improve the disorder.

Endometriosis is the condition in which tissue from inside the uterus grows and develops lesions outside it. The inflammation associated with the condition leads to pain with urination and bowel movements, painful intercourse and chronic pelvic pain. Sometimes, women suffering from this condition are infertile.

It’s stated that 1 in 10 women have this condition, but the researcher Merli Saare thinks no one can actually know how many women have it because it’s difficult to diagnose it. A simple blood sample doesn’t help doctors identify the condition. At present specialists diagnose it surgically. By using a laparoscopic procedure, the doctor removes lesions from the abdominal cavity and test them to confirm the disease. Often, removing the lesions relieves the symptoms, but doesn’t cure the condition, which often recurs.

Research is highly needed in the domain to help women deal with this painful condition. Until now this is what we know.

Immune cell discovery can help improve endometriosis symptoms

We noted earlier in this article that white cells could play a role in causing endometriosis. The scientists from the Greaves lab, now part of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick, along with collaborators at the University of Edinburgh found out that cells in the human immune system can influence the growth and activity of nerve cells in this disorder. They can generate increased sensitivity and pain in the pelvic area. The Medical Research Council funded this research because around 180 million women worldwide need a treatment for this condition, the excruciating pains affecting their daily lives.

Macrophages adapt their function according to the signals they receive from a certain area, so this disorder can modify them. The condition draws them into lesions and this is why doctors found them in high numbers inside the lesions they remove. The scientists have used cell culture from modified macrophages to observe how they evolve. It looks like they register an increased production of the insulin-like growth factor also known as IGF-1. The IGF-1 factor not only that influences nerves growth but also activates them and generates pain.

To confirm their conclusions, scientists also examined peritoneal fluid from patients with endometriosis and identified high concentrations of IGF-1. Women without the condition have lower levels of the same factor. This is the first time a study connects macrophages to endometriosis, but it can help researchers find a non-hormonal treatment because nowadays women rely heavily on hormonal solutions to fight the symptoms.  

What are other endometriosis findings

Until a cure is identified, scientists try to find pain management alternatives. At present, women have access to over-the-counter pain medications, hormone therapies and surgery. Women with moderate to severe pains can use oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist to deal with their pain. Daily pills also work because they stop the production of oestrogen that contributes to the growth of endometrial scarring and painful symptoms. However, the GnRH antagonists have side effects not many women are willing to experience. They put their body into a state similar to artificial menopause, so it prevents them from getting pregnant. Other side effects include hot flashes, loss of bone intensity and vaginal dryness.

Surgery is one of the most effective treatments for this condition because it removes endometrial lesions and it stops symptoms. The Women’s Health journal states that surgery is successful at reducing pains, but sometimes the condition recurs even after surgery. With the patient’s consent, the doctor can treat endometriosis during the diagnosing procedure. A 2018 study involving 4000 people concluded that laparoscopic excision surgery can treat pelvic pain and bowel-related symptoms to endometriosis.

Scientists from the Netherlands run a clinical trial to find ways to improve surgery’ success. Now, surgeries don’t remove lesions completely, so symptoms often come back. Patients need a second surgery. The clinical trial is exploring an alternative, the use of fluorescence imaging to prevent repeated surgeries.

Non hormonal treatment for endometriosis is a step closer

As stated above, endometriosis lesions contain a high number of macrophages and the disease environment creates signals that influence the function of the immune cells. By reprogramming these cells women can treat this condition without having to use hormonal treatment.

Scientists had to dive into complex study to find out how to transform or replace uterine cells. A study from Northwestern Medicine reveals that we can replace cells causing pain or inflammation with healthy cells that are created from the patient’s own supply of pluripotent stem cells. The benefit is that the body doesn’t reject the cells and the transplant will have 100% success. More research is required on the subject but it can be a solution for the women who don’t want to experience the side effects hormonal treatment has.

Because the main cause of endometriosis is still unknown, researchers have started to ask if genes have nothing to do with the condition. Some studies have pointed out that the suppression of specific genes can play a major part. Scientists at Yale University revealed that microRNA Let-7b, a genetic precursor that controls gene expressions is suppressed in patients suffering from the disorder. If doctors would administer Let-7b to their patients they can relieve some symptoms. This treatment is at the moment effective only on mice, but the study shows records big reductions in lesions after mice were injected with Let-7b. Before testing the treatment on human patients, extensive research is required.

Endometriosis is treatable. The right treatment varies from a patient to another, but the latest scientific advancements prove that medicine is close to discovering a cure.

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Newswise — Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, a longtime faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, globally recognized AIDS researcher and advocate, and former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), is among five finalists to lead the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Beyrer has been at the forefront of AIDS advocacy and research since the start of his career. An outspoken advocate and champion of human rights, Beyrer has extensive experience conducting international collaborative research and training programs in HIV/AIDS and other infectious disease epidemiology, HIV preventive interventions, including vaccine clinical trials and preparedness studies, and in health and migration and health and human rights. His work spans Africa, Asia and throughout Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Approximately 36.9 million people are currently living with HIV, and tens of millions of people have died of AIDS-related causes since the beginning of the epidemic. While significant progress has been made on HIV, with global deaths decreasing significantly in the past decade and longer life expectancies for patients who receive treatment, several regions are experiencing sharp increases in new infections and are struggling to expand both prevention and treatment.

“Chris brings extraordinary insights to the fight against HIV as a researcher, an advocate and a human being,” says Bloomberg School Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, ScM. “Chris is a natural leader whose decades of experience in science and advocacy for human rights make him an inspired choice for this position.”

In addition to serving as president of the IAS from 2014 to 2016, Beyrer has held numerous high-level positions. He served as co-chair of the Epidemiology and Natural History Planning Group of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health. He also serves on scientific advisory committees for UNAIDS and the World Health Organization. He served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from 2011 to 2014. Beyrer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2014. He is the author of over 320 scientific papers, six books and numerous other publications.

Beyrer received his MD from SUNY Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn in 1988 and a master of public health from the Bloomberg School, then the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, in 1991. He joined Johns Hopkins in 1992, to serve as field director for Hopkins HIV research in Thailand. Beyrer is a professor of Epidemiology, International Health, and Health, Behavior and Society at the Bloomberg School and also professor of Nursing and Medicine. He is the founding director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights. He is associate director of the Hopkins Center for AIDS Research and an associate director of the Center for Global Health. In 2016, Beyrer was installed as the Desmond M. Tutu Professor in Public Health and Human Rights at the Bloomberg School.

“Chris has earned the deep respect of those who have fought and are fighting to save so many lives in the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” says Joshua Sharfstein, MD, vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Bloomberg School. “He can bring together advocates, scientists, and policymakers in the U.S. and around the world in support of a vision of eliminating this terrible disease.”

UNAIDS, founded in 1995, works to achieve zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS encompasses 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and collaborates with partners across the world towards the Sustainable Development Goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The outgoing UNAIDS executive director, Michel Sidibé, has served since January 2009. He was appointed the Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali in May.

The UNAIDS’ 44th Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) was presented with a short list of candidates for the executive director position in late June. The PCB search committee chair was next to send the committee’s report to the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations, which will make a recommendation to the United Nations Secretary-General. The UN Secretary-General will make the final decision about the appointment of the next executive director of UNAIDS.

The full list of finalists for the UNAIDS executive director position has been reported in several news outlets.

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