# PATHWAYS TO NEW BIOMARKERS IN RECURRENT ABDOMINAL PAIN IN CHILDREN

> **NIH NIH R01** · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $491,157

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Abdominal pain-related functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs; previously called Recurrent Abdominal
Pain) affect 10-20% of children and adults worldwide exerting a tremendous economic, social, and emotional
burden. Up to 66% of children go on to have similar symptoms as adults. In children, the two most common
FGIDs are functional abdominal pain (FAP) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS - essentially FAP with changes
in stooling pattern). Management and treatment are hampered by lack of biomarkers to characterize and
understand pathophysiologically what are phenotypically and arbitrarily defined conditions. Previous studies
have evaluated IBS, not FAP, and relied primarily on retrospective symptom evaluation and utilized methodology
(e.g., 16S sequencing) that limits in depth interrogation of perturbations (e.g., gut dysbiosis) reported in children
and adults with IBS. Further, `omics (metabolomics, lipidomics, metaproteomics) data is largely missing from
studies of FGIDs and is urgently required - our preliminary data show that it likely provides critical mechanistic
insight into the links between abdominal pain symptoms and the pathobiologic alterations of gut dysbiosis, barrier
dysfunction, and neuroimmune dysfunction which we and others have described in FGIDs. Our preliminary data
support the hypothesis that these alterations can pathobiologically discriminate FGIDs from healthy controls as
well as identify disease mechanisms of pain in FGIDs. We propose to build on our previous work and use
previously collected prospective abdominal pain and stooling diaries and stool samples collected from a large
and well-vetted group of children with FGIDs (IBS n=133, FAP n=47) and healthy controls (HC, n=112). Our
Hypothesis is that microbial community characterization and `omics profiling will provide biomarkers to
differentiate FGIDs (IBS and FAP) from HC and generate insight into the genesis of pain symptoms (and stooling
characteristics in IBS). Our Specific Aims are to use: 1) Global unbiased whole genome shotgun sequencing,
metabolomics, lipidomics and metaproteomics (`omics) on stool samples to differentiate children with FGIDs vs
HC using classifier models; Sub-Aim – explore potential differences between FAP and IBS and HC; and 2)
Proprietary Texas Children's Hospital Microbiome Center reference databases and state-of-the art bioinformatics
approaches (e.g., supervised learning, bipartite, Bayesian models) to identify disorder-specific biomarkers and
therapeutic targets within children with FGIDs: Sub-Aim 2a - Characterize the relationships between `omics and
abdominal pain symptoms (and stooling symptoms in IBS). Sub-Aim 2b – Characterize the relationships
between `omics and abnormal physiology (impaired barrier function, neuroimmune dysfunction). It is anticipated
that this innovative, multidisciplinary study will better inform patient management and offer unique therapeutic
strategies based on novel insights pro...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9850841
- **Project number:** 2R01NR013497-06A1
- **Recipient organization:** BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert J Shulman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $491,157
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2012-09-27 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9850841

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9850841, PATHWAYS TO NEW BIOMARKERS IN RECURRENT ABDOMINAL PAIN IN CHILDREN (2R01NR013497-06A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9850841. Licensed CC0.

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