The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center School of Dentistry (UT Health San Antonio) has been awarded the first National Institutes of Health grant under its new Center for Pain Treatment and Addiction Research to address pain in head and neck cancer patients.
A nearly $600,000 grant from NIH’s National Dental and Craniofacial Institute will address this serious pain problem that significantly impairs quality of life. Many head and neck cancer patients require opiate pain management, but tolerance quickly develops, requiring new analgesic approaches.
“It is often very difficult to treat oral cancer pain with available drugs due to limited efficacy and rapid development of resistance,” the grant recipients said. said Dr. Shivani Ruparel, associate professor of endodontics at UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry. and chief researcher.
We propose a new mechanism of oral cancer pain and provide knowledge for future research in developing drugs for pain management as well as cancer treatment. ”
Shivani Ruparel, Associate Professor, San Antonio School of Dentistry, University of Texas San Antonio Health Sciences Center
Launched in June of this year, the Center for Pain Treatment and Addiction Research represents an innovative multidisciplinary approach to reducing pain and addiction. It focuses on both the mechanisms of pain and treatments that reduce or block the transmission of pain, whether to the orofacial or other areas of the body.
Treatment includes novel non-addictive medications, dietary/nutritional modifications, and alternative therapies.
“This important NIH grant will support the groundbreaking research of Dr. Shivani Ruparel, who is leading efforts toward novel mechanisms of and treatments for orofacial pain.” UT Health – said Dr. Kenneth M. Hargreaves, professor of endodontics at the San Antonio School. from the School of Dentistry and became the first director of the center’s Center for Pain Treatment and Addiction Research. “By expanding our knowledge of pain biology, we will be able to translate these discoveries into tomorrow’s new drugs.”
Targeting oral pain mechanisms
The number one symptom that brings oral cancer patients to the doctor is pain. When a tumor develops in your mouth, you immediately feel pain, and the pain increases as the tumor progresses. Therefore, these patients experience pain throughout the course of their disease and are further burdened by the burden of developing cancer.
Unfortunately, pain management for these patients is inadequate due to limited treatment options available. This new study aims to better understand the mechanisms of oral cancer pain in order to develop new analgesics.
Luparel’s research team has demonstrated for the first time that this pathway not only promotes tumor progression, but also causes tumor-derived pain at the very site of tumor growth. They showed that brain-derived neurotrophic factors released by oral squamous cell carcinoma cells affect pain transmission, and that local inhibition of its receptors can reverse pain transmission.
This indicates that targeting this receptor could potentially treat oral cancer pain without causing the side effects typically observed with centrally acting drugs such as opioids.
Their preliminary data suggests that truncated receptors are the predominant isoform or protein type in trigeminal sensory neurons and oral squamous cell carcinoma cells that send pain signals to the head and face, and are involved in pain regulation in oral cancer. This suggests that
Therefore, the researchers aim to investigate the role of receptors in sensory neurons and their influence on pain behavior, neuronal plasticity, and gene expression. And by evaluating immune cell profiles, transcriptomic changes and single-cell analysis in tongue tumors, they determined whether its receptors, derived from oral squamous cell carcinoma cells, modulate pain-related changes in the tumor microenvironment. I’m planning to find out.
“The relevance of this study lies in the potential to discover new therapeutic targets to manage oral cancer-induced pain and improve patients’ quality of life,” said Ruparel.
“Specifically, we propose to study the role of the truncated tyrosine kinase receptor isoform of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in mediating pain at the site of tumor initiation,” she said. “Given that this isoform contributes to tumor progression, targeting this receptor signaling may be an effective treatment not only for tumor progression but also for cancer-induced pain. It may prove to be the case.”
This research has broad implications.
“Dr. Shivani Ruparel’s research addresses the critical need for pain management in people suffering from oral cancer,” said Peter, DDS, PhD, MBA, professor and chair of the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry.・M. Rumer said. “Oral cancer is a significant health problem in South Texas, and Dr. Ruparel is committed to improving the quality of life for those affected by this devastating disease.”
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University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center
