Descrizione del progetto
Luce blu significa stop ai neuroni canaglia che inviano falsi segnali di dolore
Chiunque conviva con un dolore cronico, e circa una persona su cinque in tutto il mondo lo fa, può attestarne gli effetti fisici debilitanti e le gravi complicazioni, tra cui depressione, ansia e difficoltà a dormire, con conseguenze per i rapporti personali e professionali e persino per la stabilità economica. Il dolore neuropatico è un dolore cronico dovuto a nervi danneggiati che inviano i segnali sbagliati ai centri del dolore del cervello. La trasmissione del segnale nervoso comporta una serie di segnali elettrici e chimici, tra cui l’effetto inibitorio di un afflusso di ioni potassio. Il progetto BREAK, finanziato dall’UE, si sta concentrando sui canali del potassio nei neuroni con un nuovo analgesico iniettabile. Bloccare i neuroni locali dalla segnalazione del dolore al cervello potrebbe fornire sollievo dal dolore neuropatico per milioni di persone in tutto il mondo.
Obiettivo
Chronic pain (CP) is a medical condition affecting around 20% of adults in Europe, characterised by an abnormal duration of pain (> 12 weeks) originally initiated by a trauma or illness. Despite significant progress, CP remains extremely hard to treat, with only one-third to two-thirds of patients reporting adequate some pain relief. This situation is even worse for neuropathic pain (NP), a specific class of CP affecting 8% of global population and whose origin mostly depend on peripheral or central nervous damage or disorder, which leads the brain to interpret as pain normally non painful stimuli. NP is difficult to treat due to the large number of entities involved (cells, genes and proteins working in synergy), which makes it hard to rapidly diagnose the exact cause of pain. Drugs targeting the central nervous system (e.g. antidepressants and opioids) provide only partial pain relief and are nonspecific, also causing side effects like addiction, and nausea, thus restraining their adoption for prolonged treatments.
BREAK is the first non-invasive inhibitory optogenetic tool specifically designed for NP treatment, with potential application to the whole spectrum of CP. BREAK is composed of a drug and an optical device. The protein BLINK2 is injected in the painful area using a genetically engineered virus, and respond to a specific blue light by silencing the addressed neuron. The lamp can be kept at some distance (cm) from the skin and no implant is required. Just some minutes of treatment results in hours of pain relief, making the invasiveness of BREAK far lower than actually existing solution.
A first version of BREAK has already demonstrated in in-vivo experiments on rats. During this project we plan to further develop the treatment and explore its commercial potential. In particular, leveraging from the experience of different partners, we will constitute a fruitful stakeholder network, including Academic centers, hospitals, pharma companies and investor
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantIstituzione ospitante
20122 Milano
Italia