A critical role of interleukin-1 in preterm labor

• This work highlights the importance of interleukin-1 in human preterm labor, as well as efforts to identify safe and potent IL-1-targeting agents and diagnostics with high negative and positive predictive value to respectively treat and identify women at risk of preterm deliveries.
• Tandem use of new diagnostics and therapies will incentivise development of effective clinical modalities to tackle this unmet medical need.

Preterm birth (PTB) is a leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide, and represents a heavy economic and social burden. Despite its broad etiology, PTB has been firmly linked to inflammatory processes. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are produced in gestational tissues in response to stressors and can prematurely induce uterine activation, which precedes the onset of preterm labor. Of all cytokines implicated, interleukin (IL)-1 has been largely studied, revealing a central role in preterm labor. However, currently approved IL-1-targeting therapies have failed to show expected efficacy in pre-clinical studies of preterm labor. Herein, we (a) summarize animal and human studies in which IL-1 or IL-1-targeting therapeutics are implicated with preterm labor, (b) focus on novel IL-1-targeting therapies and diagnostic tests, and (c) develop the case for commercialization and translation means to hasten their development.

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