COM Seminar Series - Dr. Ben Harrison

Please join us for a Department of Biomedical Sciences (COM) seminar by Dr. Ben Harrison on March 26, 2021 (Friday; 12-1 pm) via Zoom.

Seminar title: A Master Switch for Chronic Pain?

Speaker: Benjamin Harrison, Ph.D.

Department of Biomedical Sciences

University of New England

College of Osteopathic Medicine

Biddeford, ME

Abstract:  Pain sensation is required for the development and maintenance of adaptive behaviors to preempt and prevent tissue damage. However, more than a third of Americans are living with maladaptive pain, a significant societal problem exacerbated by the opioid epidemic. Therefore, research to discover non-addictive medications to combat problem pain is critical. In the majority of cases, persistent pain is underpinned by plasticity of pain sensing neurons (nociceptors) and chronic activity of nociceptors drives the transition to and maintains many chronic pain states.  Using bioinformatics, we examined gene expression profiles from nociceptors under normal conditions and under conditions of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Analyses uncovered the RNA-binding protein CELF4 as enriched in normal nociceptors and decreased during chronic pain. Previous studies showed that this protein negatively regulates the excitability of neurons by binding to and preventing the translation of key mRNAs into proteins. Accordingly, we found that removal of CELF4 from nociceptors increased their excitability, and animals developed hyperalgesia. We therefore propose that CELF4 is a master switch, that under normal conditions tonically limits translation of pro-nociceptive genes. This seminar will present evidence in support of this exciting finding, and consider implications for the development of non-addictive pain medications.