University researches treatment for endometriosis

UTRGV School of Medicine Assistant Professor Annelyn Torres-Reveron and Research Associate Leslie Rivera-Lopez have published two articles on endometriosis based on the research completed at the university.

Endometriosis is a disease that can affect a woman’s uterus.

“It’s a disease that occurs mostly during the reproductive years,” Torres-Reveron said. “It causes pelvic pain. It causes pain during menstruation, and it causes pain during sexual intercourse, and it can cause infertility.”

She also said one in 10 women has endometriosis. Existing treatments for endometriosis include contraceptives and laparoscopy, or surgery.

“Endometriosis, unfortunately, is still a very obscure disease,” Torres-Reveron said. “I mean, people don’t talk about it even though it’s so common. There’s not much research dedicated to it, even though it’s one in 10 women. Keep in mind, breast cancer is one in eight.”

She said some people disregard endometriosis, since it’s not fatal.

“However, it makes you miserable for many years,” she said. “So, sometimes, you put it in a balance. … Now, you don’t die from it, but you’re miserable. I mean, that’s pretty bad still, being miserable every single month for more than 10 years,” Torres-Reveron said.

She said endometriosis will last as long as you have a period.

Rivera-Lopez said, “There have been some cases where women, they take out everything. They prefer to–”

“–take out their uterus,” Torres-Reveron said. “If you take out the uterus … you don’t have endometriosis anymore. But taking out an organ, it’s not trivial. It’s not something that, you’re like right away, ‘Take out my uterus.’”

Rivera-Lopez said, “If you have to take out your uterus …you’re never going to have kids. So, [it’s] a tough decision.”

Torres-Reveron said she has heard of some women in their late 20s say, “‘Forget it, I don’t want kids. I don’t want to deal with this anymore.’”

She decided to test if Antalarmin, which Torres-Reveron said is a drug mostly used for research, could be used to treat endometriosis.

Torres-Reveron said she came up with the idea, and Rivera-Lopez performed surgeries on rats during their research trials.

Antalarmin was tested in three separate trials of about 20 rats, which were surgically implanted with endometriosis. Their results were that Antalarmin reduced the severity and intensity of endometriosis.

Torres-Reveron said their research, the results of which were published  on Nov. 14, 2017, and Nov. 14, 2018, online in PLOS One and SAGE Journals, is only the beginning.

“Once you know that it works, then you start testing everything else,” she said. “You start testing
pain. You start testing toxicity. You start testing everything else,
safety, dose.”

Torres-Reveron said she would also like to test other similar compounds with different ways of administering.

“Because, right now, the Antalarmin was injected, but injecting women every day, it’s not convenient,” she said. “But there are similar compounds to Antalarmin that can be given orally.”

The team has conducted research for the last three years.

“Many more tests need to be done,” Torres-Reveron said. “This is the very first phase of what is called the process of drug discovery, or drug reformulation. … But translating the use of a drug from animal models to the clinical scenario can take up to eight to 10 years.”