A Snapshot seminar hosted by the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience

Chronic pain is a hallmark of joint diseases and a significant number of people with arthritis experience severe persistent pain that is not adequately managed with current treatments. Importantly, patients with joint pain often experience symptoms such as low mood, anxiety, overwhelming tiredness and lack of energy (also called fatigue) as well as memory dysfunction, conditions that altogether significantly impact patients’ well-being. While the sensory aspects of joint diseases have been extensively studied in animal models, associated mood-related disorders are rarely assessed in basic research. The efficacy of pain-relieving therapies in improving mood-disorders is also seldom investigated. Here, I will discuss data from pre-clinical work where we have used a battery of behavioural tests in mice with joint pain (1) to assess affective- and sleep-related disorders that often affect people with arthritis and (2) to investigate the efficacy of a novel treatment, the inhibition of the stress regulator FKBP51, designed not only to reduce persistent pain but also to directly improve mood-related disorders.

Biog: Dr. Géranton studied organic chemistry and biochemistry at the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier” in France. She then went to the UK where she obtained an MSc in biotechnology at the University of the West of England. After a short visit to the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, where she acquired basic molecular techniques, Dr. Géranton joined UCL where she carried out a PhD in the then department of Pharmacology. She went on learning about pain mechanisms as a post-doctoral researcher with the London Pain Consortium, under the supervision of Prof. Stephen Hunt. Dr. Géranton has always been keen on applying her multidisciplinary background to further her understanding of the molecular biology of pain states. She has been at the forefront of the investigation of the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the development of pain states, a field for which she has been asked to write numerous reviews.