Descripción del proyecto
Tratamiento del dolor neuropático mediante nanopartículas
El dolor neuropático crónico, que resulta de un daño en los nervios o de un sistema nervioso que no funciona debidamente, afecta a sesenta millones de personas en todo el mundo. Es por tanto necesario dar con terapias nuevas, sobre todo cuando los analgésicos actuales presentan una eficacia parcial. El proyecto PIANO, financiado con fondos europeos, propone que la administración local dirigida a los ganglios de la raíz dorsal (GRD) puede optimizar el tratamiento del dolor y permite vigilar los cambios en la transmisión del dolor en condiciones de dolor neuropático. PIANO estudia los mecanismos del dolor en los GRD que contienen los cuerpos celulares de neuronas especializadas que transmiten señales nocivas desde la periferia hasta el sistema nervioso central, donde se percibe el dolor. El equipo del proyecto identificará los GRD involucrados en la señalización del dolor con la ayuda de nanopartículas dirigidas para permitir la visualización del dolor y la inflamación, y la administración de compuestos analgésicos.
Objetivo
Chronic pain is a debilitating disease, which affects approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide, and of those, approximately
4% suffer from neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is often described as a shooting or burning pain that can come and then
disappear but equally it may become chronic, where the pain may become unrelenting and severe. It often is the result of
nerve damage or a malfunctioning nervous system. Additionally there is the impact upon society where the costs related to
disability allowance, treatment, lost wages and productivity impacts the economy. Current treatments for chronic pain are not
fully reliable and there is a severe lack of tools to diagnose or visualise the pain process within the dorsal root ganglia
(DRG). Humans have 62 DRGs which are the first relay stations in the pain pathway. Local targeted treatment at the level of
those DRGs involved in the pain process is the solution to circumvent side effects and optimise treatment. We aim to identify
involved DRGs by visualising cells or molecules in the DRG which are directly or indirectly associated with the generation of
pain. We will use a novel method of nanoparticles targeted towards pain-associated cells or molecules in the DRG. A vast
amount of neuropathic pain studies have shown an eminent infiltration of macrophages into affected DRGs. These
nanoparticles will be specifically designed to target initially the macrophages in the DRG, encapsulating both therapeutic
payloads and imaging contrast reagents to monitor pain-associated activities. The goal of PIANO is therefore to facilitate a
state-of-art approach to visualisation of neuropathic pain / inflammation at DRG sites as well as to simultaneously release
analgesic molecules from the nanoparticles.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinador
WC2R 2LS London
Reino Unido