# Identification of novel targets for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced painful peripheral neuropathy

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2024 · $388,750

## Abstract

Chemotherapy-induced painful peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is the most common toxicity
associated with widely used chemotherapeutics. CIPN is the major cause of dose reduction or
discontinuation of otherwise life-saving treatment. Unfortunately, CIPN can persist in cancer-
survivors which adversely affects their quality of life. Moreover, available treatments are vastly
inadequate which necessitates the development of novel mechanism-based therapies that can
either prevent or treat CIPN. Recently, HIF1A, PDHK1, and LDHA have been demonstrated to be
the key molecular mediators that initiate and maintain bortezomib-induced neuropathic pain.
However, those studies were carried out in tumor-free mice. Moreover, our preliminary results
also implicate those molecular targets in paclitaxel and oxaliplatin-induced neuropathic pain.
Hence, the objective of this proposal is to validate that HIF1A, PDHK1 and LDHA are shared
mediators that lead to the development and maintenance of bortezomib, paclitaxel and oxaliplatin-
induced neuropathic pain in tumor-bearing mice. Using biochemical, metabolic, behavioral and
innovative imaging method of intact DRGs this application aims to systematically validate these
targets for the prevention and treatment of CIPN. Successful completion of this project promises
to lower the risk of adopting these targets in translational projects to develop novel non-addictive
therapeutics for chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11160833
- **Project number:** 4R01CA249939-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** Ohannes Kevork Melemedjian
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $388,750
- **Award type:** 4N
- **Project period:** 2020-09-21 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11160833

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11160833, Identification of novel targets for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced painful peripheral neuropathy (4R01CA249939-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11160833. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*