31/07/2019

THE UDG PROVES THE EFFECT OF AN ESTEVE DRUG THAT PREVENTS SPINAL CORD INJURY PAIN

The study is of great importance because there are currently no medicines that are really effective against this pathological pain caused by spinal cord injury.

The results have been obtained within the framework of the doctoral thesis by Sílvia Castany, developed within the NEOMA research group of the UdG and the company ESTEVE Pharmaceuticals, in the industrial doctoral program promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Two out of three people affected by a spinal cord injury feel pain that has a significant impact in their quality of life and, unfortunately, in most patients current treatments are not effective. Now, a scientific team from the University of Girona (UdG) has demonstrated the effect of a medicine that will prevent the development of the pathological pain resulting from a spinal cord injury.

The journal Frontiers in Pharmacology has published the results in a paper by Sílvia Castany, as lead author. The researcher made this discovery within the framework of her doctoral thesis supervised by Dr. Pere Boadas-Vaello, undertaken in the research group NEOMA and the company ESTEVE, within the industrial doctoral program of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The study, performed on animal models, found that administering the medicine E-52862, developed by ESTEVE Pharmaceuticals, after a spinal contusion considerably reduced the possibility of this pain emerging over 28 days. This period coincides with the end of the critical stage just before the pain becomes chronic. According to the researchers, this time would represent several months in the case of humans.

The research, which is at a preclinical stage, provides continuity to a prior study by the same scientific team in which it was demonstrated that mice modified genetically by the therapeutic target E-52862 developed less pain after the spinal contusion. This breakthrough was published in the journal Scientific Reports, in March 2018.

The fact that today there are no medicinal products that are really effective against this pain makes it necessary to develop of new pharmacological strategies. For this reason, the results of this study are of great scientific importance. Fruit of this investigation, Sílvia Castany obtained the summa cum laude of Biomedicine doctoral program of the UdG and is currently undertaking postdoctoral research work in Sweden.