Description of Research Expertise

Over the past 14 years, my research has centered on uncovering novel therapeutic targets and elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying both acute and chronic pain, with a long-term objective of developing non-opioid pain therapies. I have extensive expertise in generating and utilizing diverse mouse models of pain, conducting behavioral assays, performing surgical manipulations, and leveraging mouse genetics to dissect nociceptive pathways.

During my postdoctoral training in the Luo Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Dr. Jianguo Gu (UAB), I uncovered a previously unrecognized role of Aβ low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs) in modulating mechanical nociception. Our findings demonstrated that targeted manipulation of these LTMRs at both peripheral and spinal levels significantly alleviates chronic inflammatory pain—offering a non-opioid therapeutic avenue that also sheds mechanistic light on modalities such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and spinal cord stimulation.
Reference: Gautam M, et al. Nature Communications, April 2024 (PMCID: PMC10995180).

My doctoral research at Dr. Ray's lab at AIIMS, New Delhi focused on identifying neuromodulatory pathways involved in postoperative pain. I demonstrated that Substance P, via the neurokinin-1 receptor (NK1R), plays a central role in spinal nociception, and that NK1R antagonism effectively abolished postoperative pain in rats (Gautam et al., Spinal Cord, 2016). I also characterized the contribution of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) at both spinal and peripheral sites and showed that pharmacological inhibition with 1400W attenuates guarding behavior and mechanical allodynia (Gautam et al., Nitric Oxide, 2015).

Further, I demonstrated that intrathecal administration of Neuropeptide Y produces significant analgesia in the postoperative model, particularly reducing guarding and thermal hyperalgesia (Gupta et al., Annals of Neurosciences, 2018). In parallel studies, I investigated the somatostatin system, examining the spinal expression of somatostatin and its receptors, and showed that localized somatostatin activation elicits antinociceptive effects comparable to morphine and bupivacaine [(Kumar et al., EJA, 2018; Prasoon et al., Neuropeptides, 2015)].