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Researchers have identified two common drugs that may, when given together during pregnancy, prevent premature births. The finding is the fruit of a new Stanford Medicine–led, artificial intelligence–powered technique for screening drugs to prevent early labor. It uses a comprehensive atlas of the immune system, which the researchers built to be accurate at a cell-by-cell level, to create "digital twins" of the immune systems of individual pregnant women for virtual drug testing.

The study, published in Science Advances, builds on two decades of Stanford Medicine research on how the maternal immune system shifts during pregnancy. When the immune clock of pregnancy runs too quickly, preterm labor can result.

Being born prematurely, meaning three or more weeks before the due date, carries a host of risks for the baby. Prematurity is now the leading cause of death in children under age 5 worldwide.

After screening several possible treatments with the digital twin system, the researchers identified one drug combination that promises to markedly lower the risk of early labor. It shows so much potential for averting preterm birth that researchers are starting a clinical trial in real patients.

, professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine. It's been decades since there was a new pharmacological intervention for preventing preterm birth, he noted.

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