How Intestinal Motility Activates Sensory Pathways
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$555,875.00
Summary
Pain and discomfort from the gut are common and unpleasant. We understand how gut sensory nerve cells work, at the cellular, molecular and genetic level. However, movement of the gut wall and contents are the major cause of activation of sensory neurons. We know little about which particular patterns of movement cause pain. This is crucial information for accurately diagnosing human gut disorders, for monitoring effectiveness of treatments and for identifying potential new drug targets.
Chronic inflammation underlies common and debilitating diseases and causes pain by unknown mechanisms. There is an urgent need to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of chronic pain, which will allow the development of improved therapies with fewer side-effects. Our research program investigates the mechanisms of pain that are associated with inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, with the goal of developing more effective and selective therapies.