Saturday, April 20, 2024 4/20/2024

Clinical Translation of Ultrasonic Ketamine Uncaging for Non-Opioid Therapy of Chronic Pain

Award Number: UG3NS115637
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

Group Awards By Issue Date FY or Funding FY:

View Award Abstract

Narcotic use in chronic pain treatment has played a major role in the ongoing opioid crisis. Convergent evidence indicates that the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is critical in the pathophysiology of chronic pain. Local therapies directed to the ACC yield benefit for chronic pain clinically and preclinical data suggest that locally applying the drug ketamine to the ACC should yield acute-onset and long-acting remission of the pain phenotype through a non-opioid mechanism. In this manner, local ketamine infusion into this critical brain target is a promising non-opioid pain treatment that could yield remission of chronic pain with potentially more predictable dose-response relationships than systemic administration, with personalization based on the imaging defined sensitivity of the ACC to pain, and without limiting side effects due to off-target drug action in the rest of the brain or body. To translate these results into a clinical treatment, one would ideally be able to locally apply ketamine to only the ACC, without any off-target ketamine action and without invasive interventions to the brain. Towards this end, we have developed ultrasonic drug uncaging for neuroscience, in which neuromodulatory agents are uncaged from ultrasound-sensitive biocompatible and biodegradable drug-loaded nanocarriers. We have validated that we can use this technique for selective ultrasound-induced release of ketamine, and that ultrasonic uncaging yields drug effects that are limited precisely by when and where the ultrasound is applied. Further, we have developed a straightforward path to translate this technology to clinical practice. We now propose to clinically translate ultrasonic ketamine uncaging for chronic pain therapy. Given the variety of potential therapeutic effects that are increasingly ascribed to ketamine, we anticipate that this first-in-human clinical trial would establish the safety of this technique and generate the efficacy data necessary to enable regulatory approval for larger clinical trials for each application of ultrasonic ketamine uncaging. Overall, we expect that completion of this proposal will provide the prototype for subsequent translation of ultrasonic drug uncaging for numerous other drugs of interest. Specifically, in the proposed preclinical UG3 phase, we will scale up our nanoparticle production processes to human scales and adapt them to pharmaceutical standards. We will also complete the animal testing needed to obtain regulatory approval for an initial clinical trial. In the proposed clinical UH3 phase, we will complete a first- in-human evaluation of the safety and efficacy of ultrasonic ketamine uncaging by quantifying how much ketamine is released relative to the ultrasound dose, and assessing whether the uncaged ketamine can modulate the sensitivity and affective response to pain, in patients suffering from chronic osteoarthritic pain. Successful completion of this proposal will yield a novel, noninvasive, and non-opioid therapy for chronic pain that maximizes the therapeutic efficacy of ketamine over its side effects, by targeting its action to a critical hub of pain processing.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2023	THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	3	2/6/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $3,041,068 )
2023	2023	THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	001	3	8/4/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$3,041,068
2023	2021	THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	2	5/2/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $3,041,068

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2022	2021	LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, THE	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	2	8/5/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $1,697,084 )
2021	2021	LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, THE	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	2	8/25/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,697,084
														Subtotal = $1,697,084

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $9,809 )
2020	2019	LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, THE	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	002	1	9/3/2020	NEW	$0
2020	2019	LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, THE	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	1	11/27/2019	NEW	$9,809
2020	2019	LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, THE	450 JANE STANFORD WAY	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	001	1	12/10/2019	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $9,809

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $1,408,592 )
2019	2019	LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, THE	450 SERRA MALL	STANFORD	CA	94305	SANTA CLARA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	1	9/25/2019	NEW	$1,408,592
														Subtotal = $1,408,592

Grand Total All Awards = $6,156,553

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Clinical Translation of Ultrasonic Ketamine Uncaging for Non-Opioid Therapy of Chronic Pain

Award Number: UG3NS115637

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer