Congratulations Hiroaki Soma

Professor Hiroaki Soma (at left) recipient of the 2018
IFPA Senior Award

It is a pleasure to record that my good friend and colleague Hiroaki Soma received the Senior Award of the International Federation of Placenta Associations at their recent meeting in Tokyo.

In his address, Professor Soma looked back over 60 years of research including important clinical work on gestational trophoblastic disease in Japan and placental lesions associated with pregnancy at high altitude in Nepal.

In addition, he gave valuable insights about comparative placentation. The range of mammals included chinchilla, giant panda. Japanese serow, sloth, chimpanzee, elephant, manatee and hyrax. As if this were not enough, Professor Soma also presented his research on pregnancy in sharks and rays conducted at the Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa. 

Pregnancy-associated malaria research suggests a way to target cancer cells

Anopheles stephensi - a vector for the malaria parasite
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum is spread by mosquitos. It multiplies and resides in the liver and erythrocytes (red blood cells). In areas with heavy infection with Plasmodium most individuals acquire immunity. During pregnancy, however, infected erythrocytes are able to accumulate in the placenta. Pregnancy-associated malaria is an important cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality (reviewed here).



Placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria infection. Normal erythrocytes lack
a nucleus. Thus a nucleus indicates the presence of the malaria parasite.
Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) uploaded by Nephron

Infected erythrocytes express surface proteins, among them VAR2CSA, which can bind to a placental variant of chondroitin sulphate A (CSA) expressed by syncytiotrophoblast.

A paper just out in Cancer Cell (here) shows that placental CSA is expressed by many types of cancer cell. This knowledge was leveraged to target cancer cells using recombinant VAR2CSA fused to diptheria toxin or conjugated to hemiasterlin. Human cancer cells in vitro were effectively killed by this means. Tumour growth and metastasis in mice could be inhibited by a similar approach.