Gurudutt Pendyala, Ph.D., recently received two grants for work performed in his laboratory, an R21 grant worth nearly $420 thousand from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a $50 thousand grant from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
The NIH grant supports research on inflammation associated with methamphetamine addiction alongside the presence of HIV in the brain. HIV and methamphetamine use are two factors that both increase inflammation and damage in the brain, and their affects are compounded when prevalent together. In these situations, a synapse protein is often present at lower rates than normal. Dr. Pendyala’s research will study the role of this protein in the brain disfunction.
Dr. Pendyala also hopes to show that the administration of an anti-inflammatory drug improves brain function by reducing inflammation. The drug has also shown to reduce cravings for psychostimulants like methamphetamine.
"Our basic goal is to see if we can develop a strategy to make the brain function better," said Dr. Pendyala.
This is the first R21 grant Dr. Pendyala’s lab has been awarded. Dr. Pendyala said the goals of his research are to help identify measurable parameters that can help treat drug addiction and open new lines of research. Users of intravenous substances who share needles are at a higher risk of contracting blood-borne viruses such as HIV.
The one-year, $50 thousand DHHS grant supports research on the role of extracellular vesicles associated with nicotine addiction in differing sexes. The research will build upon previous work published from his lab, including emerging studies showing that female research models developed a dependence to nicotine more rapidly and with higher relapse rates than males.
In the abstract for acquiring the grant, Dr. Pendyala stated that smoking tobacco cigarettes is a significant health and economic burden in the United States that results in 480,000 deaths and costs more than $300 billion annually.
"The whole point is doing good science," said Dr. Pendyala. "We want to not only find answers, but find answers that positively impact humanity."
Dr. Pendyala was also recently awarded a $2.3 million, five-year grant from the NIH to study sex differences associated with methamphetamine addiction in animal models.