The NYU Oral Cancer Center has awarded a five-year, $ 3.1 million (R01 CA231396) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lead researchers Donna Albertson, PhD, and Brian Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, seek to improve the treatment of oral cancer and reduce pain by better understanding how a subset of nerves having a receptor called TRPV1 on the cell membrane contributes to cancer progression. and pain.
Oral cancer patients have a poor prognosis and suffer from debilitating pain. Albertson and Schmidt have been studying oral cancer at the molecular level for nearly two decades to address these critical clinical challenges.
In work previously funded by the NCI, the researchers enrolled patients seen at the NYU Oral Cancer Center in a cancer pain study. They found that some patients reported developing sensitivity to spicy foods, such as chili peppers. The TRPV1 ion channel – sometimes called the “capsaicin receptor” – is activated by the spicy part of chili pepper of the same name.
This observation led Albertson and Schmidt to assume that oral cancers release mediators that sensitize and activate nociceptors (nerves that sense pain) and pain stimulation. They also post that the cancer-based nociceptors stimulate cancer growth.
In their new research, which responds to an NCI program with a focus on the role of the nervous system in managing or promoting cancer, the researchers will examine the sensitivity and activity of TRPV1 to nociceptors generated by cancer mediators. They will also examine the bilateral stimulation of oral cancer with CGRP – a neuropeptide linked in pain signal pathways – released by sensitive and activated nociceptors.
We propose to study the interaction of sensory neuron-cancer awareness in cancer stimulation and oral cancer pain. It is not known what mechanisms are involved in two-way interactions between oral cancer cells and neurons, and how the interactions induce cancer and pain. There is an urgent need to explain how oral cancers and neurons interact with each other and the effectiveness of disrupting these interactions to treat oral cancer and associated pain. “
Donna Albertson, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, NYU College of Dentistry
“For nearly 20 years Donna and I have studied the pain and progression of oral cancer,” said Schmidt, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at NYU College of Dentistry and director of the NYU Oral Cancer Center. “This award, funded by NCI, is the first project in which we combine our individual knowledge in cancer biology and neurobiology to show how neurons drive growth cancer and cancer pain.This project is an exciting new journey for us as we unleash how a subset of nerves contribute to the progression of cancer and pain.After identifying the components of the cancer-nerve interaction with intent moreover, we will seek to develop innovative approaches to the treatment of oral cancer and oral cancer pain. “
By examining the interplay between nerves and cancer, the newly funded research will form the basis for the development of non-opioid pain treatment as well as cancer treatment. Immediately, the work will be a means for clinical trials to evaluate CGRP and CGRP-targeted receptor therapies to treat cancer and reduce cancer pain; these treatments are currently FDA approved only for migraine.