Where Ideas Grow

2021 Grünenthal Dor prize awarded to i3S researcher

The 2021 Grünenthal Dor prize, worth 7,500 euros, was awarded to scientist Mónica Sousa for her article published in the journal Brain, in which she identifies the exact location in sensory neurons that causes neuropathic pain - thus paving the way for the development of more effective treatments and analgesics to manage chronic pain.

The article “Sensory Neurons Have An Axon Initial Segment That Initiates Spontaneous Activity In Neuropathic Pain”, the team led by Mónica Sousa identified a new cellular compartment in the neurons of the Dorsal Root Ganglia, called the Initial Segment of the Axon, which induces the nerve impulse responsible for the unpleasant sensation of pain which clinicians call Spontaneous Activity.

To develop this work, the team from the “Nerve Regeneration” research group resorted to genetically manipulated mice in which the Axon Initial Segment compartment does not exist, and verified that the neurons of these mice did not have the capacity to generate Spontaneous Activity. That is, when the researchers evaluated the sensation of pain by stimuli, these animals could not feel pain.

For Mónica Sousa, “these discoveries are extremely important for a better understanding of the function of the neurons of the Dorsal Root Ganglia in health and chronic pain”. In fact, she adds, “knowledge of the subcellular site at the origin of the pain impulse will facilitate the development of effective and precise analgesics, and new therapies, for the control of chronic pain”. The next step, explains the researcher, will be to understand what the physiological impulses are in this region and if this compartment can be susceptible to manipulation that helps to control neuropathic pain phenomena.