SMHS researchers help find potential treatment to sickle cell disease pain
One of the many debilitating symptoms of sickle cell disease (SCD) – a genetic condition where a person’s red blood cells assume a sickle shape, inhibiting their flow into and out of vessels and capillaries – is chronic pain.
Because the mechanisms underlying SCD-induced pain are poorly understood, treatments have been few and far between, leading many sufferers to the use of dangerous opioids.
According to a new study published by UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences researchers in the journal Blood, this chronic pain may become a thing of the past.
“In this study, we demonstrated, for the first time, that chronic sickle cell disease pain is driven by lipids, highlighting a novel therapeutic target for treating this condition,” said Mikhail Golovko, a professor in the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences Department of Biomedical Sciences and director of the School’s Mass Spectrometry Research Core. “Our own Mass Spec Core, equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, allowed us to develop a new approach to quantify trace amounts of lipid pain mediators, which was critical for this discovery.”
Mass spectrometry is an interdisciplinary method of physical assessment whereby ions (atoms and molecules with an electrical charge) are measured to determine their mass-to-charge ratio. This measurement produces a “mass spectrum,” which can be used to determine the various elemental or isotopic signatures of biological or chemical samples, the masses of particles and molecules, and the architecture of molecules and compounds. First established under an NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant, UND’s Mass Spectrometry Core aids in multiple researchers’ biomedical studies, including recent studies involving lipid peroxidation, prostaglandin profiling, and hydroxy-fatty acids profiling.
Led by researchers at the University of Minnesota, with significant contributions from Golovko’s team, the study demonstrated that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a phospholipid mediator and signaling molecule, mediates SCD-associated pain. Further, blocking LPA signaling actually reversed SCD-induced pain in animal models. The signal blocking occurred at the dorsal root ganglion of the treated animals’ central nervous system, reducing their overall sensitivity to pain.
Golovko said that the next steps in this area of study include validation of potential new therapeutic approaches via clinical trials.
Blood, the flagship journal of the American Society of Hematology, is published online and in print and boasts a research impact factor of 23.9, making it the leading journal in the field of hematology.
