A University of New England professor has been awarded a $1.7 million federal grant to research medications that would potentially reduce nerve pain in some HIV patients.
Dr. Ling Cao, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of New England, won the National Institutes of Health grant for a five-year study to “further understand HIV-associated neuropathy. This nerve-damaging condition often manifests as hard-to-treat pain and affects about half of the people living with HIV,” the university said in a statement.
Cao said the research “enables her lab to make real contributions to eventual drug development.” There is no current FDA-approved drug to treat HIV-associated neuropathy.
“With the advancement of antiretroviral treatment, people with HIV live longer and are more likely to experience HIV-associated chronic complications, such as HIV sensory neuropathy,” Cao said, “Clinically, it is hard to distinguish HIV sensory neuropathy from other similar peripheral neuropathies.”
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