BME Seminar Series: Devina Purmessur, PhD Instructor in Spine Research Department of Orthopedics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Purmessur will present "Utilizing concepts from development to inform therapeutic strategies for discogenic back pain"

All dates for this event occur in the past.

105 Biomedical Research Tower
460 W. 12th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
United States

Utilizing concepts from development to inform therapeutic strategies for discogenic back pain

Abstract: Chronic low back pain is a debilitating disorder of significant socio-economic importance affecting over 80% of the population at some point during their life time and intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration has been implicated in its pathogenesis. The healthy immature IVD is largely avascular and aneural with a proteoglycan-rich water-imbibing nucleus pulposus (NP) that is surrounded circumferentially by the fibrous annulus fibrosus (AF) and contained cranially and caudally by the cartilage endplates. This unique structure enables the IVD to withstand high mechanical forces and maintain motion. During aging and disease there is an increase in inflammatory and catabolic processes, an increase in neurovascular ingrowth and pain modulators (NGF, BDNF and Substance P) and a decrease in mechanical properties. Current therapeutic strategies focus largely on alleviating the symptoms without targeting the mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of disease. We propose that recapitulation of the processes that occur during development may help inform treatments that can limit discogenic pain.  The notochord patterns the IVD during embryonic development and species such as rabbit and rat retain this cell population through to adulthood and do not experience disc disease unlike humans. We and others have demonstrated that soluble factors from notochordal cells can enhance a healthy NP cell phenotype and proteoglycan synthesis in degenerate human disc cells and adult MSCs in vitro. We have recently demonstrated that the notochordal-rich NP is a source of neurovascular patterning ligands and these notochordal-derived soluble factors can inhibit neurite growth from rat dorsal root ganglion cells and human neuroblastoma cells with limited cytotoxicity. Similar studies demonstrated that soluble factors can also inhibit angiogenesis in vitro and the mechanism for inhibition may occur through the VEGF pathway. These studies suggest that soluble factors from the notochord have the potential to restore disc function and a healthy cell phenotype whilst at the same time inhibiting neurovascular ingrowth, providing a structure and symptom-modifying therapy for discogenic back pain.

Dr Devina Purmessur, PhD

Dr. Purmessur is currently an Instructor (junior faculty) in Spine Research in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her current research focuses on using concepts from developmental biology to develop therapeutic strategies that address neurovascular ingrowth associated with discogenic back pain.

Dr. Purmessur graduated in 2001 with a BSc honors in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Sheffield, UK and in 2003 obtained an MSc (passed with distinction) in Immunology and Allergy from the University of Nottingham. In 2004 Dr. Purmessur was awarded a Case Industrial PhD studentship at the University of Manchester with Pfizer PLC as the industrial partner, under the supervision of Professors Judith Hoyland and Anthony Freemont. Her doctoral work focused on neural-disc cell interactions and expression and regulation of neurotrophins in the pathogenesis of painful disc disease. After graduating in 2008, Dr. Purmessur began her postdoctoral research at the University of Vermont in the Department of Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. James Iatridis. Her postdoctoral research focused on developing whole organ culture models of inflammatory disc disease and regenerative cell-based strategies for disc repair. Dr. Purmessur moved to Mount Sinai with Dr. Iatridis in 2010 where as the senior Postdoctoral fellow, she assisted in setting up the laboratory and transitioned to Instructor in 2012 and has been there since. As an Instructor Dr. Purmessur has received a Young Investigator start-up grant from the AO Foundation and is also a Co-investigator on an RO1 and OREF grant.

Dr. Purmessur is actively involved in the Spine and Orthopaedic Research communities where she sits on the Orthopaedic Research Society Board of Directors as the Associate Member-at-large. In this role she has promoted and created career development programs for young trainees and junior faculty.