Descrizione del progetto
Trattamento del dolore neuropatico a base di nanoparticelle
Il dolore neuropatico cronico, che deriva da un danno ai nervi o da un malfunzionamento del sistema nervoso, colpisce 60 milioni di persone in tutto il mondo. Poiché gli attuali antidolorifici sono solo parzialmente efficaci, è auspicabile trovare nuove terapie. Il progetto PIANO, finanziato dall’UE, propone la somministrazione locale mirata ai gangli dorsali come soluzione per ottimizzare la gestione del dolore e consentire il monitoraggio dei cambiamenti della trasmissione del dolore in condizioni di dolore neuropatico. Il progetto PIANO si concentra sui meccanismi del dolore nei gangli dorsali che contengono i corpi cellulari di neuroni specializzati che trasmettono la segnalazione nociva dalla periferia al sistema nervoso centrale, dove il dolore viene percepito. I ricercatori individueranno i gangli dorsali coinvolti nella segnalazione del dolore con l’aiuto di nanoparticelle specifiche per consentire la visualizzazione del dolore e dell’infiammazione e la somministrazione di composti analgesici.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinatore
WC2R 2LS London
Regno Unito