Drugs for Two

    When a woman gets pregnant, she eats for two -- and must think twice about the drugs she takes.

    That's because during pregnancy, the placenta regulates both the nutrients and the drugs a baby receives from its mother's blood.

    Ken Audus, a University of Kansas pharmaceutical chemist, and his fellow researchers are investigating the nuts and bolts of drug breakdown in the placenta.

    With legal and illegal drug use during pregnancy on the rise, scientists want to know how well the placenta protects a baby from drugs.

    A recent study in mice indicated the placenta does block some drugs. Scientists discovered a protein that recognizes many chemicals as foreign and kicks them out. Evidence suggests the protein is also found in people.

    Scientists already knew the human placenta contains an enzyme that can break down drugs. That enzyme plays an identical role in the liver.

    But the placenta isn't a perfect roadblock.

    In fact, a growing body of evidence shows that several drugs of abuse actually hitchhike into the placenta on carriers that nature designed to transport food from mother to child.

    Audus and colleagues nationwide believe the knowledge can be used to design drugs that will help mom and not harm baby.

"Drugs for Two" was adapted from a commentary originally produced for Medicine Chest, a radio program produced by the Higuchi Biosciences Center and the Drug Information Center at the University of Kansas. Medicine Chest airs weekly on fourteen Kansas radio stations.