Gagan Kaushal
Thomas Jefferson University, USA
Title: Transdermal patch development of capsaicin using genomic approach for treatment of chronic low back pain
Biography
Biography: Gagan Kaushal
Abstract
Capsaicinoids are the compounds that give pungency to peppers. Capsaicinoids trigger pain receptors in mammals. However, long-time exposure to capsaicinoids dulls the pain receptors, making them less sensible to the compounds that trigger pain. For this reason capsaicinoids are gaining pharmaceutical use as a long-term pain reliever. Chronic back pain is the most common cause of activity limitation for people under 45 in the United States. A key point in our study is to develop value added pepper varieties adapted to local conditions. For our study, we have used a multi-disciplinary approach. At present, there is an increasing demand of vegetables with high contents of health promoting compounds in the U.S. markets. We have expanded our deliverables to include backcross derived improved varieties for various biomedical applications. Another goal of this project is the development and use of sequence based haplotyping models for cost-effective association mapping of nutraceutical traits in pepper. This method has allowed us to screen 88 accessions of Capsicum annuum. Coupling the capsaicinoids level data in the different accession to genetic studies will allow us to mine for better alleles to be used in breeding varieties with specific capsaicinoid concentrations. Two gel formulations of capsaicinoids were tested for their diffusion across rat skins. The results showed that both formulations tested diffuse capsaicinoids with over 50% efficiency.