# Center for Restoration of Nervous System Function

> **NIH VA I50** · VA CONNECTICUT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM · 2024 · —

## Abstract

Chronic pain and spasticity are major unmet needs within the VA. Since our discovery of Nav1.7 as a “master
switch” for pain in humans, the biopharma industry has invested more than $1 billion in development of Nav1.7
blockers. That work is continuing with the development of 2nd-generation blockers that build on our initial efforts
(Cao et al., 2016) and the targeting of Nav1.8 which functions in concert with Nav1.7. We are committed to
more effective, non-addictive treatments for pain and spasticity in Veterans and are taking a “multiple shots on
goal approach” through the following novel efforts.
Research Program I: Pain Pharmacogenomics. A. Pain Resilience—Why do some people experience
severe pain after injury, while others feel little or no pain? We have begun to use our innovative platform of
patient-specific stem cells to identify genes that confer resilience to pain. Thus far we have identified Kv7.2 and
Kv7.3 channels as strong modulators of pain and are analyzing KCNK18. These are potentially druggable
targets. Going forward we will analyze the effect of pharmacological agents on these protective channels as a
prelude to clinical studies. B. Limb Amputation & Phantom Limb Pain in Veterans—Building upon our
success in identifying genetic risk factors in patients with painful neuropathy, trigeminal neuralgia and ocular
pain, we now plan to identify genetic risk factors in Veterans with limb amputation and phantom limb pain
(Hannon Act Sect. 305) as a prelude to larger-scale studies in Veterans that capitalize on the MVP database.
Research Program II: Accelerating Toward Improved Pain Pharmacotherapy. A. Chemotherapy-
Induced Pain—We have demonstrated that chemotherapy affects sensory neurons in a drug-dependent
manner and are building a unique collection of animal models to advance this research, which has important
implications for Veterans with CIPN. We are also evaluating cannabinoids as a therapy for CIPN. B.
Osteoarthritis—We are advancing an entirely new approach to treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), an unmet
need in Veterans, having demonstrated that Nav1.7 is upregulated within human OA chondrocytes and
contributes to disease progression. We are now elucidating the actions of Nav1.7 in OA and assessing Nav
blockers in animal models and human tissue to attenuate pain and slow disease progression in OA. C. Novel
Discovery Platforms—We are developing innovative stem cell technology platforms, powerful methods to
visualize transport of single ion channels, and high-throughput assays for drug screening.
Research Program III: New Treatments for Spasticity. We have uncovered ventral horn dendritic spine
dysgenesis as a strong contributor to spasticity following SCI, validated Rac1-Pak1 pathway as a novel target,
and are evaluating the repurposing of FDA-approved Romidepsin to inform human clinical trials (provisional
patent filed through VA TTS). We are developing powerful new methods—intravital visualization of dendritic
spines via spinal...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10758400
- **Project number:** 2I50RX002999-06
- **Recipient organization:** VA CONNECTICUT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Sulayman D Dib-Hajj
- **Activity code:** I50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10758400

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10758400, Center for Restoration of Nervous System Function (2I50RX002999-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-19 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10758400. Licensed CC0.

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