NYITCOM’s Xie Receives NIH Grant To Study New Migraine Treatment

JONESBORO, Ark. — A faculty member at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM at A-State) recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in support of research that aims to uncover new migraine treatments for patients who do not respond to or cannot take commonly prescribed medications.

Yanhua “Jennifer” Xie, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical and anatomical sciences at NYITCOM at A-State, was awarded a three-year NIH grant of $472,592 to support her study that will explore ways to help migraine sufferers.

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Using animal models of migraine, Xie and her research team, which includes NYITCOM medical students Kaku Asare, Helen Shi, and Annalee Uhrlaub, will adopt a mix of behavioral and biological methods to explore whether the new compound RgIA5474 reduces migraine-like pain to benefit patients lacking effective medications.

It’s estimated that as many as one in 10 Americans suffer from migraines regularly, and many individuals struggle to find relief from the painful episodes.

“Unfortunately, many current treatments don’t work well for everyone,” Xie said. “Some people find relief with triptans, but these drugs can cause heart-related side effects that make them unsafe for some patients. Newer drugs that block a molecule called CGRP are easier to tolerate, but they don’t work very well for women and hardly help men at all.”

Xie and her team will explore a new kind of treatment that targets α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors of the immune system to see how well this new compound works in relieving migraine symptoms in animals.

“An earlier version of this treatment showed promise but had limited translational potential,” Xie said. “Now, we have a newer compound that works more effectively with key receptors, making it a stronger candidate for future treatments.”

In addition to physical pain brought on by the headaches, migraine sufferers incur significant costs due to doctors’ visits, medications, missed work and loss of productivity.

“We are hopeful that this study will provide promising results that will ultimately help people improve their quality of life in a number of ways,” Xie said. “We’re grateful to the NIH for supporting this crucial work.”

Xie and her team will conduct their bench work at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute on the Arkansas State University campus.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R15NS143081. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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About NYITCOM at A-State: NYITCOM at A-State opened in 2016 through a private/public partnership between Arkansas State University and New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. NYITCOM at A-State operates in Wilson Hall on A-State’s Jonesboro campus and was created with a pointed focus of training physicians to address the growing shortage in Arkansas and to provide health education programs for a region where health outcomes are among the poorest in the nation.