Editor’s note: This seminar is the latest event in a series of seminars launched in May 2020 to help keep the pain research community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide all members of our community with virtual educational opportunities. The seminar series is supported by The MAYDAY Fund and the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, US.
The IASP Pain Research Forum hosted a seminar with Irina Vetter, PhD, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, on Monday, March 29, 2021, 8-9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (US)/Tuesday, March 30, 2021, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time. A Q&A session moderated by Sven-Eric Jordt, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, US, followed the presentation.
A recording of the seminar is available on the IASP Pain Education Resource Center here.
Here is an abstract from Dr. Vetter
Stinging trees from Australasia produce remarkably persistent and painful stings upon contact of their stiff epidermal hairs, called trichomes, with mammalian skin. Dendrocnide-induced acute pain typically lasts for several hours and intermittent painful flares can persist for days and weeks. Our recent work shows that the venoms of Australian Dendrocnide species contain heretofore unknown pain-inducing peptides that potently activate sensory neurons and delay inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels. These neurotoxins localize specifically to the stinging hairs and are miniproteins of 4 kDa whose 3D structure is stabilized in an inhibitory cystine knot motif, a characteristic shared with neurotoxins found in spider and cone snail venoms. Our results provide an intriguing example of inter-kingdom convergent evolution of animal and plant venoms with shared modes of delivery, molecular structure, and pharmacology.
About the presenter
Irina Vetter, PhD, is the director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Queensland. She obtained her PhD in 2007 from the School of Pharmacy, UQ, and conducted studies as a National Health and Medical Research postdoctoral fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute and at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in the areas of axon guidance and venom peptide pharmacology. She is a recipient of an International Association for the Study of Pain Patrick Wall Young Investigator Award (2018) and has a strong background in neuropharmacology, pain models, toxicology, and high-throughput screening. Her current main research interests lie in the fields of peripheral pain mechanisms, biodiscovery of venom peptide ion channel modulators, and analgesic drug discovery.
About the moderator
Sven-Eric Jordt, PhD, is associate professor of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine, and faculty in Duke’s Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health program. Research in the Jordt laboratory focuses on mechanisms of chemical sensing and toxicity, leading to the discovery of TRP ion channels as targets of natural products, environmental irritants, and toxic industrial chemicals eliciting pain, itch, and respiratory irritation. Current projects focus on peripheral neuroimmune interactions in asthma and contact dermatitis, acute lung injury, and chronic pain. The Jordt lab also investigates the irritant effects and toxicity of flavor chemicals in tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. Sven received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award (ONES) by NIEHS, and the Leading Edge in Basic Science Award by the Society of Toxicology, among other awards.
Join the conversation about the seminar on Twitter @PainResForum #PRFSeminar
We thank The MAYDAY Fund, and the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, US, for their support of the PRF seminar series.
