Alexis Bavencoffe
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology
We are studying new cellular targets to treat chronic pain, with an emphasis on patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). After SCI or chemotherapy, primary nociceptors can switch from an electrically quiet into a hyperactive state enabling spontaneous discharge of action potentials (spontaneous activity, SA). This hyperactive state can enhance nocifensive reflexes and drive ongoing pain. Experimental approaches that block SA have already yielded promising results. We are using electrophysiological (patch-clamp) and behavioral approaches to identify signaling pathways (with an emphasis on cyclic AMP dependent pathways) recruited by circulating factors (e.g., proinflammatory cytokines) found in the plasma of patients that could elicit and maintain the nociceptor hyperactive state and chronic pain. The Bavencoffe Lab focuses in particular on the neuroimmune crosstalk mediated by proinflammatory cytokines between sensory neuron somata located within dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and immune cells (e.g. macrophages, lymphocytes) leading to the nociceptor hyperactive state that promotes chronic neuropathic pain. We perform our investigations using preclinical rodent models of SCI and CIPN and test the translational potentials of our findings for future clinical applications on freshly dissociated human sensory neurons.
For tutorials: students will be offered hands-on training in electrophysiology (patch-clamp recordings and analysis), behavioral assays and DRG neurons dissociation and culture, all applied to a project linked to determine the contribution of a specific target to the generation/maintenance of the nociceptor hyperactive state after SCI and/or chemotherapy treatment.
McGovern Medical School Faculty
Education & Training
PhD, University of Sciences and Technologies of Lille, 2009