Elephant Shark to Determine Link Between Commonly Used Drug and Abortions

Researchers recently used a prehistoric fish to pull in new understandings about human biology, specifically the manner and reason a commonly used medication is effective in aborting human pregnancies.

The animal model, an unusual and uncommon-looking one, is an elephant shark called Callorinchus milii, a EurekAlert! report specified.

Known by many names like ghost sharks, silver trumpeter, and elephant fish, this species is found in waters off southern Australia.

The smooth-skinned, cartilaginous fish grows to a maximum of four feet in size and poses no hazard to humans. More so, their unique hoe-shaped, proboscis-like snout is used to identify prey, mainly shellfish and bottom-dwelling invertebrates, through movements, not to mention weak electrical fields.

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(Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images)
The abortion drug Mifepristone, also known as RU486, is pictured in an abortion clinic in 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand.

PR Activation

Findings of the study are published in the online issue of ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science. It is a different aspect, though, that makes elephant sharks appropriate for specific kinds of studies.

Essentially, they belong to the oldest group of jawed vertebrates and have the slowest developing genome of all identified vertebrates, making them perfect for examining how some biological systems have developed in bony vertebrates, including humans.

The most recent study, comparing PR or progesterone receptor activation in both elephant sharks and humans, offers insights into the manner steroid activation evolved in the latter mentioned and the reason it's working the way it does at present.

Essentially, progesterone is a hormone that, in female individuals, regulates the menstrual cycle, preparation for conception, and keeping a pregnancy.

Its impacts are facilitated by PR, its nuclear receptor. The study investigators discovered that PR activation in elephant sharks needs a different mix of hormones and steroids than activation of PR in humans. The latter mentioned necessitates lesser yet more particular hormonal and steroidal stimulations.

Endocrine Disruption

More fascinatingly, the researchers found that a medically approved clinical compound called RU486 that's blocking or terminating a pregnancy in humans and is typically called the "abortion pill" does not have a similar effect in elephant sharks. More so, it does not hinder progesterone activation of elephant shark PR.

According to Michael Baker Ph.D., senior author of the study and a US San Diego of Medicine research professor, their findings illuminate the divergent evolutionary trails of fish and humans and provide understanding about the manner other more commonly used animal models, particularly zebrafish, might be difficult when trying to analyze the pathology of endocrine disruption or formulate new drugs.

Endocrine disruption occurs when either manmade or natural chemicals imitate, simulate, or inhibit hormones that control development, reproduction, and other basic functions.

RU486 Pill

A study published in the Human Reproduction journal specified that in part, RU486 is "the pill" awaited for hundreds of years by women in struggle and still threatened by the hazard of botched abortions in several countries.

This is adequate for it to be the object of countless articles in professional and lay press and numerous public and private debates.

The newly demonstrated probability of preventing the development of pregnancy with a convenient combination of RU486 and a low-cost, safe, orally active prostaglandin, and therefore the promise of defusing the abortion issue, has once more handed news headlines.

Related information about the RU486 abortion pill is shown on Asael Rodriguez's YouTube video below:

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