Periodic Reporting for period 5 - ALBINO (Effect of ALlopurinol in addition to hypothermia for hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury on Neurocognitive Outcome)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-07-01 al 2022-12-31
Temporary cooling of the baby’s body to 33.5°C (“therapeutic hypothermia”) became the only established therapy to improve outcome after perinatal brain injury caused by oxygen deficiency. Despite cooling and neonatal intensive care, 40-50% of affected children still die or suffer from long-term neurodevelopmental impairment (i.e. cerebral palsy (severe movement difficulties which are caused when the parts of the brain which control such movements do not work properly), cognitive deficits, and seizures). Additional neuroprotective interventions, i.e. interventions seeking to protect the brain from this injury, besides temporary cooling, are warranted to further improve their outcome.
The ALBINO project seeks to test such an additional neuroprotective intervention. The overall objective is to evaluate whether early postnatal administration of allopurinol in newborns with biochemical and clinical signs of insufficient oxygen supply during delivery, in addition to standard of care (including therapeutic cooling if indicated) reduces the rate of death or severe neurodevelopmental impairment.
If tested successfully, the project also seeks to develop a medication for newborn babies and to make allopurinol available for intravenous administration in children for the European market. Eventually, the project can make an important contribution to alleviate the burden of cerebral palsy and cognitive disability for children, parents and society.
- establish safety and efficacy of a novel treatment for infants with brain injury caused by oxygen deficiency complementing current standard of care and (potentially) rendering it more effective
- reduce the burden of brain injury caused by oxygen deficiency for affected children, families and society
- test and validate early indicators (so-called ‘biomarkers’) of later disability, including advanced imaging techniques in a large population of exposed infants
- provide data on the metabolism and excretion allopurinol and mannitol under normal body temperature and during cooling.
- enable a small/medium-size enterprise to grow and eventually to secure jobs or even create new jobs in Europe