Funded Projects

Opioid use during pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes for pregnant individuals and offspring. The mechanisms through which these outcomes arise and the consequences of prenatal opioid exposure on child health and development remain largely unexplored. The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study is a nationwide longitudinal prospective study of early child development that will assess a broad spectrum of biological, behavioral, social, and health factors among 7,500 pregnant women and their children from pregnancy to mid-childhood. This supplement will expand the biospecimen collection of the HBCD protocol at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to include delivery specimens (placenta, cord tissue, and cord blood). This will provide an unprecedented resource-generating opportunity for the larger scientific community to comprehensively evaluate mechanisms that mediate the connection between substance use during pregnancy and adverse neonatal, infant, and/or maternal health outcomes and inform innovative preventive strategies.

Chronic pain affects an estimated 100 million Americans, or one third of the U.S. population, and it is the primary reason Americans are on disability. Although many treatments are available for pain, the most potent class of analgesics relies on opioid analogs, whose limitations and well-known adverse effects have contributed to the present opioid crisis. New pharmacotherapies for pain management are sorely needed. MTX1604, a synthetic endomorphin analog, has emerged as a highly effective analgesic that exhibits reduced reward potential and respiratory suppression, and a robust duration of efficacy in a variety of validated animal models of acute, neuropathic, inflammatory, post-operative, and visceral pain. This project will generate additional preclinical characterization data of MTX1604 and advance clinical development toward FDA approval. If successful, this medication development project could offer patients a novel non-addictive, potent, and safe analgesic and thus have a direct impact on the opioid crisis.