Funded Projects

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Project # Project Title Research Focus Area Research Program Administering IC Institution(s) Investigator(s) Location(s) Year Awarded
1UG3NS135170-01
Predictive Biosignature for Endoscopic Therapy for Chronic Pancreatitis Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE DOAN, LISA (contact); CHEN, ZHE SAGE; GONDA, TAMAS ADAM; PARK, HYUNG; WANG, JING New York, NY 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-22-050
Summary:

Chronic pancreatitis is a painful condition often caused by long-term alcohol use, and patients often require treatment with strong pain medications, including opioids. Therefore, alternative treatments for chronic pancreatitis are needed. This project will use machine learning approaches to create a prediction tool based on electroencephalography analyses, sensory tests, and psychological questionnaires that can help determine which patients with chronic pancreatitis will benefit most from a specific type of treatment called endoscopic therapy.
4R33NS113258-02
Multi-Omic Biomarkers for Neuropathic Pain Secondary to Chemotherapy Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU ROTROFF, DANIEL (contact); FOSS, JOSEPH F; JOHNSON, KENWARD B Cleveland, OH 2023
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
1UG3NS131785-01A1
Identifying multimodal biomarkers for autologous serum tears in the treatment of chronic postoperative ocular pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COLLEGE OF MEDICINE - CWRU SAYEGH, RONY ROGER (contact); ROTROFF, DANIEL Cleveland, OH 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-22-050
Summary:

Cataract surgery is commonly performed in older adults; however, some patients subsequently experience chronic eye pain that is difficult to treat. One promising approach that is effective in some, but not all, patients uses the patient's own serum (a component of blood) as eye drops. This project seeks to identify markers that can help predict which patients will respond to serum treatment and monitor their progress. Using advanced technology and data analysis to evaluate patient histories, questionnaires, and different genetic and other molecular characteristics in the eyes and serum it aims to identify potential markers that can then be tested in a clinical study.
1UG3NS135168-01
IMPACT: Integrative Mindfulness-Based Predictive Approach for Chronic low back pain Treatment Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE KING, JEAN A (contact); AGU, EMMANUEL; MORONE, NATALIA E Worcester, MA 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-22-050
Summary:

Chronic low back pain affects millions of people in the United States, resulting in high medical costs and lost productivity. New opioid-free treatments are needed to help people with chronic low back pain, but not all people respond equally to a given approach. IMPACT aims to use machine learning to analyze data such as physical activity, sleep, emotions, and pain levels and identify markers that can help predict how effective a mindfulness-based treatment approach (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) can be for people with chronic low back pain.
4R33NS114954-02
The Inflammatory Index as a Biomarker for Pain in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN BRANDOW, AMANDA M Milwaukee, WI 2023
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
1UG3NS135173-01
Developing Radiocaine NaV imaging as a response monitoring biomarker for chronic pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS LUTROO IMAGING LLC NORWOOD, BRAXTON (contact); IBRAHIM, MOHAB M Kalispell, MT 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-22-050
Summary:

There are currently no reliable tools to measure pain objectively, and health care providers must rely on patient’s subjective reports and observations of patient behavior to determine the level of pain a person experiences. This hampers both effective pain management and the development of new pain medications. This project will assess an imaging technology called Radiocaine that in animal studies has been able to identify the origin of pain as well as its intensity. The goal is to use Radiocaine in clinical trials for pain treatments, thereby enhancing treatment effectiveness and facilitating development of new treatments.
4R33NS113315-02
Biomarker Signature to Predict the Persistence of Post-Traumatic Headache Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS MAYO CLINIC ARIZONA CHONG, CATHERINE DANIELA Scottsdale, AZ 2023
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
1UG3NS130592-01A1
Sensory Phenotyping to Enhance Neuropathic Pain Drug Development Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MED CENT FREEMAN, ROY (contact); EDWARDS, ROBERT R; GEWANDTER, JENNIFER Boston, MA 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Discovery of Biomarkers and Biomarker Signatures to Facilitate Clinical Trials for Pain Therapeutics (UG3/UH3 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-22-050
Summary:

Neuropathic pain is a chronic and difficult to treat condition that affects people in different ways. This project aims to personalize treatments based on individual pain profiles. The research will develop an inexpensive test using a technique called quantitative sensory testing to predict how a patient will respond to two common pain medications. The research will also look for other factors in blood that enhance the accuracy of these predictions.
1R61AT012282-01
Development and Validation of a Multimodal Ultrasound-Based Biomarker for Myofascial Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NCCIH UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH WASAN, AJAY D (contact); KIM, KANG ; PU, JIANTAO Pittsburgh, PA 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management
NOFO Number: RFA-AT-22-003
Summary:

Pain in the muscles and surrounding connective tissues (myofascial pain) can affect many regions of the body and is a key component of chronic low back pain. Patients with chronic low back pain have a range of musculoskeletal problems perpetuating their pain. There is a significant clinical need to identify the components of myofascial pain in people with chronic low back pain. Advances in ultrasound technology have allowed researchers to identify several differences in muscle and connective tissues related to myofascial pain. This project will develop and validate an ultrasound-based biomarker signature for myofascial pain in the low back. This research will also refine the biomarker signature using advanced machine learning approaches, toward future testing in in a randomized controlled clinical trial.
1R61AT012286-01
Multimodal Imaging Biomarkers for Investigating Fascia, Muscle, and Vasculature in Myofascial Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NCCIH GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY SIKDAR, SIDDHARTHA Fairfax, VA 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management
NOFO Number: RFA-AT-22-003
Summary:

Pain in the muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans.  Myofascial pain is primarily diagnosed by asking people about their amount of pain as well as through a physical examination. Both approaches are imprecise ways to diagnose the specific type of pain a patient is experiencing and what is causing it. This project aims to improve myofascial pain management and treatment by developing ways to measure changes to soft tissues (e.g., muscle, connective tissues, nerves, blood vessels) in people with myofascial pain compared with soft tissues in people who are not in pain. The project will develop an imaging biomarker that can distinguish healthy and diseased soft tissues that may contribute to myofascial pain syndrome. The project will then test the ability of these biomarkers to predict patient outcomes in a randomized controlled clinical trial.
1R61AT012185-01
MRI-Based Quantitative Characterization of Impaired Myofascial Interface Properties in Myofascial Pain Syndrome Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NCCIH MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER YIN, ZIYING (contact); BAUER, BRENT A Rochester, MN 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management
NOFO Number: RFA-AT-22-003
Summary:

Pain in the muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. Understanding and managing myofascial pain has been limited due to a lack of tools to help clinicians diagnose and treat this disorder. While past efforts to understand myofascial pain have focused on impairments in how connective tissues connect to other tissues in the body, this project will use a new imaging technique to study myofascial tissue physical properties, including how they move in the body and their structural stiffness. This research will identify an imaging biomarker to be used in a randomized controlled clinical trial to predict patient responses to a myofascial pain treatment.
1R61AT012284-01
Electrophysiological and Ultrasound Quantitative Biomarkers for Myofascial Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NCCIH BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER RUTKOVE, SEWARD B (contact); WAINGER, BRIAN JASON Boston, MA 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management
NOFO Number: RFA-AT-22-003
Summary:

Pain in the muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant and poorly understood health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. There is a great need for tools to assess changes to myofascial tissues in individuals with chronic pain as well as to measure the effect of commonly used therapies. This project will use three imaging tools to look at differences between shoulder tissue in people with myofascial pain compared to those without pain. Using a machine learning approach, this research aims to develop a biomarker signature for myofascial pain, which will be evaluated in a randomized controlled clinical trial based on its ability to predict patient responses to myofascial pain treatments.
1R61AT012283-01
Development and Identification of Magnetic Resonance, Electrophysiological, and Fiber-Optic Imaging Biomarkers of Myofascial Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NCCIH WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HU, SONG (contact); WANG, YONG St. Louis, MO 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management
NOFO Number: RFA-AT-22-003
Summary:

Pain in muscles and surrounding connective tissue (myofascial pain) is a significant health concern affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. There is no objective way to identify and measure myofascial pain. This project will address this unmet challenge by developing a robust approach to identify imaging biomarker(s) that can distinguish different states of myofascial pain. The research will then examine the ability of identified biomarker(s) to predict patient responses to a myofascial pain treatment in a randomized controlled clinical trial.
1R61AT012279-01
Quantifying and Treating Myofascial Dysfunction in Post Stroke Shoulder Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NCCIH JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY RAGHAVAN, PREETI Baltimore, MD 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management
NOFO Number: RFA-AT-22-003
Summary:

Shoulder pain occurs in many patients who are recovering from a stroke. In addition to impairments in the ability to move, persistent shoulder pain contributes to depression, and often reduces quality of life. Although the cause of post-stroke shoulder pain is complex and not completely understood, it is thought to arise in part to damage of muscles and surrounding connective tissues (myofascial tissues) in the shoulder. This project will use advanced medical imaging techniques to create biomarkers of that can reliably identify myofascial tissues. The research will then test the ability of these biomarkers to monitor, and ultimately predict treatment responses in patients with post-stroke shoulder pain in the context of a randomized controlled clinical trial.
1R61NS113258-01A1
Multi-Omic Biomarkers for Neuropathic Pain Secondary to Chemotherapy Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU ROTROFF, DANIEL; FOSS, JOSEPH F; JOHNSON, KENWARD B; Cleveland, OH 2020
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Taxanes are among the most effective chemotherapeutic agents and are frequently used in the treatment of early stage and metastatic breast cancer. However, they are known to produce a pain condition known as Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathic Pain (CIPNP). CIPNP is one of the primary reasons a patient receives a limited dose of taxane. No diagnostic tool exists to identify patients that will develop CIPNP in response to taxane therapy. Biomarker signatures associated with taxane-induced neuropathic pain will be developed to: 1) identify patients at risk for developing debilitating taxane neuropathic pain before chemotherapy is initiated; and 2) to identify patients already on treatment who are at risk of developing neuropathic pain and need dosing adjustments to prevent CIPNP symptoms. This biomarker signature will be used to detect CIPNP-susceptible patients early and personalize their taxane therapy to minimize CIPNP while optimizing the therapeutic taxane dosing.
1R61NS118651-01A1
Prognostic Biomarkers for High-Impact Chronic Pain: Development and Validation Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS STANFORD UNIVERSITY MACKEY, SEAN C Redwood City, CA 2020
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Multidisciplinary chronic pain treatments show incomplete recovery at the population level because of significant heterogeneity on the individual level in the high impact chronic pain population. Subgroups of individuals either completely respond, do not change, or even worsen following pain management. Therefore, diagnostic biomarker signatures are needed to differentiate high impact chronic pain from low impact chronic pain. This study aims to develop prognostic biomarkers to predict the disease trajectory for individuals with musculoskeletal high-impact chronic pain. These biomarker signatures will integrate central nervous system (CNS), multi-?omic?, sensory, functional, psychosocial, and demographic domains into detection algorithms. Biomarker signatures from the proposed research are intended to facilitate risk and treatment stratification for clinical trial design and to facilitate treatment decisions in clinical practice for patients with musculoskeletal chronic pain.
1R61NS113341-01
Discovery of the Biomarker Signature for Neuropathic Corneal Pain Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS Tufts Medical Center HAMRAH, PEDRAM Boston, MA 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Neuropathic corneal pain (NCP) causes patients to have severe discomfort and a compromised quality of life (QoL). The lack of signs observed by standard examination has resulted in misdiagnosis as dry eye disease (DED). An optical biopsy using laser in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) revealed that microneuromas (bulbs at the ends of severed nerves caused by buildup of molecular constituents) are present in NCP but not DED and may serve as a biomarker for NCP. The aims are to (1) use a database of more than 2,000 DED/NCP subjects and more than 500,000 IVCM images to confirm that the presence of microneuromas is an appropriate biomarker for NCP, (2) provide biological validation of microneuromas, (3) develop a validated artificial intelligence (AI) program for automated identification of microneuromas, and (4) establish the clinical utility of microneuromas observed by IVCM as a biomarker for NCP in a prospective, multicenter study.
1R61NS113269-01
Validation of a novel cortical biomarker signature for pain Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS University of Maryland, Baltimore SEMINOWICZ, DAVID Baltimore, MD 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Chronic pain is a major health burden associated with immense economic and social costs. Predictive biomarkers that can identify individuals at risk of developing severe and persistent pain, which is associated with worse disability and greater reliance on opioids, would promote aggressive, early intervention that could halt the transition to chronic pain. The applicant’s team uncovered evidence of a unique cortical biomarker signature that predicts pain susceptibility (severity and duration). This biomarker signature could be capable of predicting the severity of pain experienced by an individual minutes to months in the future, as well as the duration of pain (time to recovery). Analytical validation of this biomarker will be conducted in healthy participants using a standardized model of the transition to sustained myofascial temporomandibular pain. Specifically the biomarker signature will be tested for its ability to predict an individual’s pain sensitivity, pain severity, and pain duration and will perform initial clinical validation.
1R61NS114954-01
The Inflammatory Index as a Biomarker for Pain in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN BRANDOW, AMANDA M Milwaukee, WI 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Debilitating pain is the most common complication of sickle cell disease (SCD), but there is significant variability in pain expression in these patients. Currently, there is no plasma biomarker that can prognosticate which patients are likely to experience pain. The overall goal of this proposed research is to develop a biomarker that prognosticates the clinical expression of pain in SCD. Project aims are to (1) derive the inflammatory index for pain by identifying inflammatory and immune regulatory gene probe sets that will distinguish healthy controls, patients with SCD in baseline health, and patients with SCD in acute pain and (2) determine whether co-expressed genes from patients with SCD correlate with clinical pain data. Subsequent aims are to (1) determine the clinically meaningful changes of the index in patients with SCD and (2) investigate the preliminary clinical validity of the index as a prognostic biomarker for pain in patients with SCD.
1R61NS113329-01
Discovery of Biomarker Signatures Prognostic for Neuropathic Pain after Acute Spinal Cord Injury Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON HERGENROEDER, GEORGENE W Houston, TX 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Debilitating neuropathic pain occurs in 40 percent to 70 percent of people who suffer from spinal cord injury (SCI). There are no distinguishing characteristics to identify who will develop neuropathic pain. The objective of this research is to develop a biomarker signature prognostic of SCI-induced neuropathic pain (NP). The aims of the project are to (1) identify autoantibodies in plasma samples from acute SCI patients to CNS autoantigens and determine the relationship between autoantibodies levels to the development of NP, (2) identify the autoantibody combination with maximal prognostic accuracy for the development of NP at six months after SCI, and (3) develop and optimize an assay to simultaneously measure several autoantibodies and independently validate the prognostic efficacy for NP using plasma samples collected prospectively. Establishing a panel will refine the prognostic value of these autoantibodies as biomarkers to detect who are vulnerable to NP and may be used to for development of nonaddictive pain therapeutics.
1R61NS114926-01
SPRINT: Signature for Pain Recovery IN Teens Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS STANFORD UNIVERSITY SIMONS, LAURA E Stanford, CA 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Up to 5 percent of adolescents suffer from high-impact chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain, and only about 50 percent with chronic MSK pain who present for treatment recover. Current treatments for chronic MSK pain are suboptimal and have been tied to the opioid crisis. Discovery of robust markers of the recovery versus persistence of pain and disability is essential to develop more resourceful and patient-specific treatment strategies, requiring measurements across multiple dimensions in the same patient cohort in combination with a suitable computational analysis pipeline. Preliminary data has implicated novel candidates for neuroimaging, immune, quantitative sensory, and psychological markers for discovery. In addition, a standardized specimen collection, processing, storage, and distribution system is in place, along with expertise in machine learning approaches to extract reliable and prognostic bio-signatures from a large and complex data set. This project will facilitate risk stratification and a resourceful selection of patients who are likely to respond to current multidisciplinary pain treatment approaches.
1R61NS113315-01
Biomarker Signature to Predict the Persistence of Post-Traumatic Headache Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS MAYO CLINIC ARIZONA CHONG, CATHERINE DANIELA Scottsdale, AZ 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

There is currently no recognized way of accurately predicting who will recover from post-traumatic headache (PTH) during the acute phase following concussion and who will go on to develop persistent post-traumatic headache (PPTH), a condition that is difficult to treat effectively. Clinical experience suggests that early treatment is most effective, before headache patterns become persistent, but treating all patients with PTH would expose some patients to unnecessary treatment. Clinicians lack the information needed to make informed treatment decisions. Therefore, the study goals are to develop a prognostic biomarker signature for PPTH using clinical data and structural and functional brain neuroimaging and to assess the predictive accuracy of an ensemble biomarker signature for the early identification of patients at high risk for PPTH. This study can be translated into clinical practice and integrated into PTH clinical trials for early identification of those individuals who are at high risk for PPTH.
1R61NS113316-01
Discovery and analytical validation of Inflammatory bio-signatures of the human pain experience Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers, Endpoints, and Signatures for Pain Conditions NINDS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT HOUSTON PROSSIN, ALAN RODNEY Houston, TX 2019
NOFO Title: Discovery of Biomarkers, Biomarker Signatures, and Endpoints for Pain (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-18-041
Summary:

Postoperative pain is a major contributor to the current opioid epidemic. Novel objective measures capable of personalizing pain care will enhance medical precision in prevention and treatment of postoperative pain. This project seeks to discover and validate a novel biosignature of the human pain experience, based on underlying IL-1 family cytokine activity and associated brain endogenous opioid function, that is readily quantifiable and clinically translatable to prevention and treatment of postoperative pain states. Specific aims will assess whether the novel biosignature will predict 1) experimentally induced pain during an experimental nociceptive pain challenge; 2) postoperative pain states with accuracy >75%, accounting for a wide range of variance in the human pain experience; and 3) postoperative pain states in an expanded clinically enriched sample.