I asked Dr. Nicolas Beaudet, a Sarret lab member, why he joined the lab. He said, “ Philippe is a great communicator. He has the ability to articulate his complex research in a way that is easy to understand, visionary and exciting”. The aspect that Nicolas finds most intriguing is the systems approach that Philippe and the team take in understanding the mechanisms of pain. This enables them to work at them molecular level up to the whole animal. This is a key step in finding potential new pain therapies.

Drilling Down

Philippe and his team centered their efforts on G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) such as apelin, chemokines and neurotensin. As a common point, they were all recently identified in the central nervous system to provide a potential role in pain modulation.

Lately, the focus has been on the roles of Neurotensin Receptor 1 (NTS1) and Neurotensin Receptor 2 (NTS2). Recent studies have highlighted the role of these receptors in pain modulation and more is to come…:

• Geneviève Roussy, Marc-André Dansereau , Louis Doré-Savard, Karine Belleville, Nicolas Beaudet, Elliott Richelson and Philippe Sarret. Spinal NTS1 receptors regulate nociceptive signaling in a rat formalin tonic pain model.Journal of Neurochemistry 105: 1100 – 1114
• Sarret, P, Perron, A, Stroh, T and Beaudet, A (2003). Immunohistochemical distributionmof NTS2 neurotensin receptors in the rat central nervous system. J Comp Neurol 461: 520–538.

• Sarret, P, Esdaile, MJ, Perron, A, Martinez, J, Stroh, T and Beaudet, A (2005). Potent spinal analgesia elicited through stimulation of NTS2 neurotensin receptors. J Neurosci 25: 8188–8196.
• Dobner, PR (2006). Neurotensin and pain modulation. Peptides 27: 2405–2414.
• Maeno, H, Yamada, K, Santo-Yamada, Y, Aoki, K, Sun, YJ, Sato, E et al. (2004). Comparison of mice deficient in the high- or low-affinity neurotensin receptors, Ntsr1 or Ntsr2, reveals a novel function for Ntsr2 in thermal nociception. Brain Res998: 122–129.      

The wow factor for me was the clever way Philippe and his team used a new technology of 27mer NTS2 Dicer Duplex siRNA (DsiRNA) delivery in vivo as a proof for the potential of DisRNAs-based pain therapies.

Louis Doré-Savard, Geneviève Roussy, Marc-André Dansereau, Michael A Collingwood, Kim A Lennox, Scott D Rose, Nicolas Beaudet, Mark A Behlke and Philippe Sarret. Central Delivery of Dicer-substrate siRNA: A Direct Application for Pain Research. Molecular Therapy (2008); Jul;16(7):1331-9. Epub 2008 Jun 3 doi:10.1038/mt.2008.98.

Using ultra low dose of DsiRNAs complexed with Neuromics’ i-Fect ™, they were able to successfully reduce NTS2 gene expression by up to 86% in rat lumbar Dorsal Root Ganglia after only two intrathecal injections. This was confirmed by Western Blot and qPCR analysis.

What Happened

Using an acute pain model, anti-nociceptive effects of NTS2, induced by a selective agonist, were significantly reduced following NTS2 silencing This resulted in rats showing an increased sensitivity to pain. By day four, the knockdown effects showed a decrease with the NTS2 function returning to normal.

What ‘s next

So we have a great start. We know that agonists binding to NTS2 in the CNS lead to analgesia. We know that DsiRNA can be used to alter the expression of this gene in vivo. We have provided a key step in learning how the NTS2 receptors can be manipulated to block pain. However, now we need to unravel the underlying mechanisms explaining these spinal analgesic properties.

It is my hope that Philippe and his team are appropriately funded. This would catalyze further discoveries in how expression of G Protein Coupled Receptors like NTS1, NTS2, APJ, CCR2 can be targeted to modulate pain. By using rodents, the team can develop tools like DsiRNA to increase the potency and duration of pain blockade. Moreover, potential toxicity and side effects need to be addressed in order to move forward towards clinical studies. These pre-clinical models prove invaluable in taking the step to studies in humans.These therapies hold the promise of providing relief for chronic pain (neuropathic, arthritic, diabetic, cancer pain, etc.) sufferers without the current side effects. Stay tuned as I will be reporting the good news as it unfolds.