Opiate-Free Pain Therapy Using Carbamazepine-Loaded Microparticles Provides Up to 2 Weeks of Pain Relief in a Neuropathic Pain Model.

Introduction: Opioids remain a mainstay in the treatment of acute and chronic pain, despite numerous and potentially dangerous side effects. There is a great unmet medical need for alternative treatments for patients suffering from pain that do not result in addiction or adverse side effects. Anticonvulsants have been shown to be effective in managing pain, though high systemic levels and subsequent side effects limit their widespread usage.

An injectable thiol-acrylate poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel for sustained release of methylprednisolone sodium succinate.

Clinically available injectable hydrogels face technical challenges associated with swelling after injection and toxicity from unreacted constituents that impede their performance as surgical biomaterials. To overcome these challenges, we developed a system where chemical gelation was controlled by a conjugate Michael addition between thiol and acrylate in aqueous media, with 97% monomer conversion and 6 wt.% sol fraction.

Establishing a model spinal cord injury in the African green monkey for the preclinical evaluation of biodegradable polymer scaffolds seeded with human neural stem cells.

Given the involvement of post-mitotic neurons, long axonal tracts and incompletely elucidated injury and repair pathways, spinal cord injury (SCI) presents a particular challenge for the creation of preclinical models to robustly evaluate longitudinal changes in neuromotor function in the setting in the presence and absence of intervention. While rodent models exhibit high degrees of spontaneous recovery from SCI injury, animal care concerns preclude complete cord transections in non-human primates and other larger vertebrate models. To overcome such limitations a segmental thoracic (T9-T10) spinal cord hemisection was created and characterized in the African green monkey.