BRITISH experts are testing whether a new supplement taken in early pregnancy could cut the risk of defects including spina bifida.
Women are already urged to take folic acid during the first three months of pregnancy to reduce the chance of a baby suffering neural tube defects. But data suggests folic acid cannot prevent all these conditions and some disorders appear to be unresponsive to it.
Now, a team from the research arm of Great Ormond Street Hospital is investigating whether women could take a single daily pill combining the new supplement and folic acid.
One reason why folic acid may not always work is that a genetic 'blockage' occurs affecting how it is metabolised in cells. The new supplement includes nucleotides, which are able to bypass this blockage, boosting the effect of folic acid.
Tests in mice resulted in an 85% drop in the incidence of neural tube defects. Some conditions that are currently unresponsive to folic acid were also prevented.
Nicholas Greene, professor of developmental neurobiology at the Institute of Child Health, said: "This treatment could boost the effects of folic acid and offer expectant mothers an even more reliable safeguard against relatively common defects like spina bifida."
Neural tube defects affect around one in 1000 babies in the UK every year and occur if there is a problem with the development of the nervous system. The Department of Health recommends women take 400 micrograms of folic acid (also known as vitamin B9) daily while trying to conceive and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article