The University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore and the Saint Louis (Mo.) University School of Medicine have been granted $5.3 million to study the treatment and prevention of migraines, the dental school said Jan. 10..
The grant was given by the U.S. Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health to examine the effectiveness of "switching off" pain receptors to treat migraines.
Collaborators on the study include Simon Akerman, PhD, and Marcela Romero-Reyes, DDS, PhD, from the University of Maryland, and Daniela Salvemini, PhD, from Saint Louis University.
The team will conduct its research using FDA-approved drugs that target pain receptors for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
"The [sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1] class of drugs we are testing both already have FDA approval for MS," said Dr. Romero-Reyes. "That is a huge advantage because the development of the drug itself has already been done, but we are able to repurpose these molecules to dissect a completely novel mechanism and therapeutic approach in migraine."