The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) awarded a $400,000 Project Grant to Navega Therapeutics, Inc., a San Diego-based biotechnology company, under the Drug Abuse and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279). The funding will support Navega's research and development efforts to advance novel epigenetic gene therapies targeting the voltage-gated sodium channel NAV1.7 for the treatment of chronic pain. This innovative approach aims to transiently repress NAV1.7...
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) awarded a $327,864 Project Grant under the Drug Abuse and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) to Opsin Biotherapeutics Inc. to develop an optogenetic pain modulator for non-opioid chronic pain management. The project aims to optimize the optical delivery and wireless stimulation device for the Multi-Characteristic Opsin (MCO) that can be delivered to pain-sensing neurons and stimulated to minimize pain perception. The...
This $415,519 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), aims to investigate the role of the SCN1B gene in susceptibility to neuropathic pain. The central hypothesis is that SCN1B, which encodes a key regulator of neuronal excitability, plays a critical part in the development of tactile allodynia in mouse models of neuropathic pain. The research will utilize a combination of...
This $1,511,970 federal Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279) supports the development of selective GPR34 antagonists for the treatment of neuropathic pain. The research aims to identify CNS-penetrant GPR34 antagonists as potential non-opioid-based therapeutics for neuropathic pain, which affects 15-20 million people in the U.S. and has limited effective treatments. The project...
This $5,037,022 project grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will support the development of novel single-cell technologies called "Raman2omics" to map pain-associated genes and cells across the lifespan. Funded under the Drug Abuse and Addiction Research Programs, the grant to the Massachusetts General Hospital aims to apply Raman2omics to systematically investigate genes and cells associated with postoperative pain...
This $1,563,778 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), aims to develop new non-opioid pain treatments by exploring the role of the equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) as a novel target for neuropathic pain. The funding will support three key activities: 1) in vivo validation of ENT1 as a neuropathic pain target, 2) in vitro and ex vivo characterization of ENT1...
This Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), aims to elucidate the genetic architecture underlying chronic pain and addiction, with the goal of identifying new non-addictive analgesic medications. The $118,457 award to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania supports research activities that include: 1) characterizing the shared genetic liability between chronic pain and addiction, 2)...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) federal grant program, provides $675,107 to Northeastern University to conduct research on the development of non-opioid, non-addictive analgesics for treating neuropathic pain. The project aims to design and synthesize novel "dualsteric modulators" that can act as both non-psychoactive...
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) awarded a $6,522,833 Project Grant to The Leland Stanford Junior University to conduct a mechanistic randomized clinical trial investigating the central and peripheral nervous system mechanisms of pain relief induced by peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) for the treatment of refractory chronic neuropathic pain. The 3-year study, funded under the NIH HEAL Initiative's CFDA 93.279 Drug Abuse and Addiction Research Programs, aims...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), under the Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs (CFDA 93.279), provides $3,565,780.00 to develop a novel high frequency trans-spinal magnetic stimulation (HF-TSMS) system for the non-invasive treatment of neuropathic pain. The research aims to refine this HF-TSMS technology to target neural pathways involved in back and leg pain, with planned experimental studies in rodent models at...
PRECLINICAL OPTIMIZATION OF A GENE THERAPY FOR ERYTHROMELALGIA AND CHRONIC PAIN - ABSTRACT CHRONIC PAIN IS PAIN THAT PERSISTS PAST THE NORMAL TIME OF HEALING. 1.5 BILLION PEOPLE WORLDWIDE SUFFER FROM CHRONIC PAIN AND THIS NUMBER CONTINUES TO INCREASE AS THE ELDERLY POPULATION GROWS, THE PREVALENCE OF DIABETES RISES, AND CANCER SURVIVAL RATES IMPROVE. CHRONIC PAIN NOT ONLY SEVERELY IMPACTS DAILY QUALITY OF LIFE FOR MANY PATIENTS, IT ALSO PLACES A HEAVY SOCIOECONOMIC BURDEN ON SOCIETY. DUE TO THE LIMITED NUMBER OF EFFICACIOUS TREATMENT OPTIONS AVAILABLE, CHRONIC PAIN IS OFTEN TREATED WITH OPIOIDS DESPITE THE RISK OF ADDICTION AND SIDE EFFECTS. UNFORTUNATELY, THE PRESCRIBING OF OPIOIDS TO TREAT CHRONIC PAIN HAS LARGELY FUELED THE CURRENT OPIOID EPIDEMIC. THEREFORE, THERE IS AN URGENT AND CLEAR UNMET NEED FOR NON-ADDICTIVE ALTERNATIVE ANALGESICS FOR THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC PAIN. THE PUSH TO DEVELOP SPECIFIC AND NON-ADDICTIVE ALTERNATIVE PAINKILLERS HAS BROUGHT INTEREST TO A PARTICULAR SODIUM CHANNEL, NAV1.7, SHOWN TO BE IMPORTANT FOR PAIN SENSING. GAIN-OF-FUNCTION MUTATIONS IN NAV1.7 ARE ASSOCIATED WITH A DISORDER CHARACTERIZED BY INTENSE BURNING PAIN IN THE EXTREMITIES: PRIMARY ERYTHROMELALGIA. CONVERSELY, LOSS-OF FUNCTION OF NAV1.7 RESULTS IN THE INABILITY TO FEEL PAIN. THEREFORE, INHIBITING NAV1.7 CAN BE AN EFFECTIVE METHOD OF REDUCING PAIN AND TREAT ERYTHROMELALGIA PATIENTS. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, WE DESIGNED EPIGENETIC MODULATORS TO REPRESS EXPRESSION OF NAV1.7. RATHER THAN MAKING PERMANENT EDITS TO THE GENOME, THESE EPIGENETIC MODULATORS WILL TRANSIENTLY INHIBIT EXPRESSION OF NAV1.7. BY TARGETING NAV1.7 AT THE DNA-LEVEL, WE CAN ACHIEVE SPECIFIC AND LONG-LASTING MODULATION OF NAV1.7, WITH BETTER PHARMACOKINETICS PROSPECTS THAN RNA- AND PROTEIN-TARGETING APPROACHES. IN THIS STUDY, WE PROPOSE TO OPTIMIZE THESE EPIGENETIC MODULATORS AS WELL AS THEIR DELIVERY IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE HIGH SPECIFICITY AND EFFICACY. IN ADDITION, WE WILL EVALUATE OUR OPTIMIZED MODULATORS IN SMALL-SCALE MANUFACTURING STUDIES AS WELL AS TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES IN A LARGE ANIMAL MODEL. THE RESULT OF THIS STUDY WILL BE AN OPTIMIZED GENE THERAPY THAT IS NOT ONLY NON-ADDICTIVE AND EFFICACIOUS FOR TREATMENT OF CHRONIC PAIN BUT ALSO HIGHLY SPECIFIC AND LONG-LASTING.