Browsing by Author "Saloman, Jami L."

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    Association of Serum Endocannabinoid Levels with Pancreatitis and Pancreatitis-Related Pain
    (Mary Ann Liebert, 2025) Goodman, Marc T.; Lombardi, Christina; Torrens, Alexa; Bresee, Catherine; Saloman, Jami L.; Li, Liang; Yang, Yunlong; Fisher, William E.; Fogel, Evan L.; Forsmark, Christopher E.; Conwell, Darwin L.; Hart, Phil A.; Park, Walter G.; Topazian, Mark; Vege, Santhi S.; Van Den Eeden, Stephen K.; Bellin, Melena D.; Andersen, Dana K.; Serrano, Jose; Yadav, Dhiraj; Pandol, Stephen J.; Piomelli, Daniele; Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes, and Pancreatic Cancer (CPDPC); Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background and Aims: This investigation examined the association of pancreatitis and pancreatitis-related pain with serum levels of two endocannabinoid molecules such as anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and two paracannabinoid molecules such as oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA). Methods: A case-control study was conducted within the Prospective Evaluation of Chronic Pancreatitis for Epidemiological and Translational Studies, including participants with no pancreas disease (N = 56), chronic abdominal pain of suspected pancreatic origin or indeterminate chronic pancreatitis (CP) (N = 22), acute pancreatitis (N = 33), recurrent acute pancreatitis (N = 57), and definite CP (N = 63). Results: Circulating AEA concentrations were higher in women than in men (p = 0.0499), and PEA concentrations were higher in obese participants than those who were underweight/normal or overweight (p = 0.003). Asymptomatic controls with no pancreatic disease had significantly (p = 0.03) lower concentrations of AEA compared with all disease groups combined. The highest concentrations of AEA were observed in participants with acute pancreatitis, followed by those with recurrent acute pancreatitis, chronic abdominal pain/indeterminant CP, and definite CP. Participants with pancreatitis reporting abdominal pain in the past year had significantly (p = 0.04) higher concentrations of AEA compared with asymptomatic controls. Levels of 2-AG were significantly lower (p = 0.02) among participants reporting abdominal pain in the past week, and pain intensity was inversely associated with concentrations of 2-AG and OEA. Conclusions: Endocannabinoid levels may be associated with stage of pancreatitis, perhaps through activation of the CB1 receptor. Validation of our findings would support the investigation of novel therapeutics, including cannabinoid receptor-1 antagonists, in this patient population.
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    Characterizing mechanism-based pain phenotypes in patients with chronic pancreatitis: a cross-sectional analysis of the PROspective Evaluation of Chronic Pancreatitis for EpidEmiologic and Translational StuDies
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2023) Saloman, Jami L.; Conwell, Darwin L.; Fogel, Evan; Vege, Santhi Swaroop; Li, Liang; Li, Shuang; Andersen, Dana K.; Fisher, William E.; Forsmark, Christopher E.; Hart, Phil A.; Pandol, Stephen J.; Park, Walter G.; Evans Phillips, Anna; Topazian, Mark; Van Den Eeden, Stephen K.; Serrano, Jose; Yadav, Dhiraj; Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Pain is common in chronic pancreatitis (CP) and profoundly reduces quality of life (QoL). Multiple underlying mechanisms contribute to a heterogenous pain experience and reduce efficacy of pain management. This study was designed to characterize the distribution of mechanism-based pain phenotypes in painful CP. The data analyzed were collected as part of the PROspective Evaluation of Chronic Pancreatitis for EpidEmiologic and Translational StuDies, an NCI/NIDDK-funded longitudinal study of the natural history of CP. The PROspective Evaluation of Chronic pancreatitis for EpidEmiologic and translational stuDies includes patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures of pain, medication use, global health, and QoL. Of subjects (N = 681) with CP, 80% experienced abdominal pain within the year before enrollment. Subjects who experienced pain in the week before enrollment (N = 391) completed PROMIS Neuropathic and Nociceptive Pain Quality instruments which were then used to classify them by pain type: 40% had nociceptive, 5% had neuropathic-like, and 32% had both types of pain. The prevalence of having both types of pain was higher among women and subjects with diabetes mellitus, whereas nociceptive-only pain was more prevalent among men and those with pancreatic duct stricture. Other factors, including pain medication use and healthcare utilization, did not differ between groups based on pain type. Subjects in the Both group had significantly worse health and QoL scores relative to those with nociceptive-only pain, suggesting that using psychosocial pain surveys may be useful for understanding pain subtypes in patients with CP. Additional research is needed to identify biochemical and biophysical signatures that may associate with and predict responses to mechanism-specific interventions.
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    Pancreatic quantitative sensory testing to predict treatment response of endoscopic therapy or surgery for painful chronic pancreatitis with pancreatic duct obstruction: study protocol for an observational clinical trial
    (BMJ, 2024-03-21) Phillips, Anna Evans; Afghani, Elham; Akshintala, Venkata Sandeep; Benos, Panayiotis Y.; Das, Rohit; Drewes, Asbjørn Mohr; Easler, Jeffrey; Faghih, Mahya; Gabbert, Charles; Halappa, Vivek; Khashab, Mouen A.; Olesen, Søren Schou; Saloman, Jami L.; Sholosh, Biatta; Slivka, Adam; Wang, Tianxiu; Yadav, Dhiraj; Singh, Vikesh K.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Introduction: Treatment for abdominal pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) remains challenging in the setting of central nervous system sensitisation, a phenomenon of remodelling and neuronal hyperexcitability resulting from persistent pain stimuli. This is suspected to render affected individuals less likely to respond to conventional therapies. Endotherapy or surgical decompression is offered to patients with pancreatic duct obstruction. However, the response to treatment is unpredictable. Pancreatic quantitative sensory testing (P-QST), an investigative technique of standardised stimulations to test the pain system in CP, has been used for phenotyping patients into three mutually exclusive groups: no central sensitisation, segmental sensitisation (pancreatic viscerotome) and widespread hyperalgesia suggestive of supraspinal central sensitisation. We will test the predictive capability of the pretreatment P-QST phenotype to predict the likelihood of pain improvement following invasive treatment for painful CP. Methods and analysis: This observational clinical trial will enrol 150 patients from the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins and Indiana University. Participants will undergo pretreatment phenotyping with P-QST. Treatment will be pancreatic endotherapy or surgery for clearance of painful pancreatic duct obstruction. Primary outcome: average pain score over the preceding 7 days measured by Numeric Rating Scale at 6 months postintervention. Secondary outcomes will include changes in opioid use during follow-up, and patient-reported outcomes in pain and quality of life at 3, 6 and 12 months after the intervention. Exploratory outcomes will include creation of a model for individualised prediction of response to invasive treatment. Ethics and dissemination: The trial will evaluate the ability of P-QST to predict response to invasive treatment for painful CP and develop a predictive model for individualised prediction of treatment response for widespread use. This trial was approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board. Data and results will be reported and disseminated in conjunction with National Institutes of Health policies.
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    Serum biomarkers for chronic pancreatitis pain patterns
    (Elsevier, 2021) Saloman, Jami L.; Tang, Gong; Stello, Kimberly M.; Hall, Kristen E.; Wang, Xianling; AlKaade, Samer; Banks, Peter A.; Brand, Randall E.; Conwell, Darwin L.; Coté, Gregory A.; Forsmark, Christopher E.; Gardner, Timothy B.; Gelrud, Andres; Lewis, Michele D.; Sherman, Stuart; Slivka, Adam; Whitcomb, David C.; Yadav, Dhiraj; NAPS consortium; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Objectives: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is associated with debilitating refractory pain. Distinct subtypes of CP pain have been previously characterized based on severity (none, mild-moderate, severe) and temporal (none, intermittent, constant) nature of pain, but no mechanism-based tools are available to guide pain management. This exploratory study was designed to determine if potential pain biomarkers could be detected in patient serum and whether they associate with specific pain patterns. Methods: Cytokines, chemokines, and peptides associated with nociception and pain were measured in legacy serum samples from CP patients (N = 99) enrolled in the North American Pancreatitis Studies. The unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to cluster CP patients based on their biomarker profile. Classification and regression tree was used to assess whether these biomarkers can predict pain outcomes. Results: The hierarchical cluster analysis revealed a subset of patients with predominantly constant, mild-moderate pain exhibited elevated interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-2 (IL-2), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1) whereas patients with higher interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) were more likely to have severe pain. Interestingly, analyses of each individual biomarker revealed that patients with constant pain had reduced circulating TNFα and fractalkine. Patients with severe pain exhibited a significant reduction in TNFα as well as trends towards lower levels of IL-6 and substance P. Discussion: The observations from this study indicate that unique pain experiences within the chronic pancreatitis population can be associated with distinct biochemical signatures. These data indicate that further hypothesis-driven analyses combining biochemical measurements and detailed pain phenotyping could be used to develop precision approaches for pain management in patients with chronic pancreatitis.
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    Serum Biomarkers of Nociceptive and Neuropathic Pain in Chronic Pancreatitis
    (Elsevier, 2023) Saloman, Jami L.; Li, Yan; Stello, Kimberly; Li, Wenhao; Li, Shuang; Evans Phillips, Anna; Hall, Kristen; Fogel, Evan L.; Vege, Santhi Swaroop; Li, Liang; Andersen, Dana K.; Fisher, William E.; Forsmark, Christopher E.; Hart, Phil A.; Pandol, Stephen J.; Park, Walter G.; Topazian, Mark D.; Van Den Eeden, Stephen K.; Serrano, Jose; Conwell, Darwin L.; Yadav, Dhiraj; Consortium for the Study of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes, and Pancreatic Cancer (CPDPC); Medicine, School of Medicine
    Debilitating abdominal pain is a common symptom affecting most patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP). There are multiple underlying mechanisms that contribute to CP-related pain, which makes successful treatment difficult. The identification of biomarkers for subtypes of pain could provide viable targets for nonopioid interventions and the development of mechanistic approaches to pain management in CP. Nineteen inflammation- and nociception-associated proteins were measured in serum collected from 358 subjects with definite CP enrolled in PROspective Evaluation of Chronic Pancreatitis for EpidEmiologic and Translational StuDies, a prospective observational study of pancreatitis in US adult subjects. First, serum levels of putative biomarkers were compared between CP subjects with and without pain. Only platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGF-B) stood out, with levels significantly higher in the CP pain group as compared to subjects with no pain. Subjects with pain were then stratified into 4 pain subtypes (Neuropathic, Nociceptive, Mixed, and Unclassified). A comparison of putative biomarker concentration among 5 groups (no pain and 4 pain subtypes) identified unique proteins that were correlated with pain subtypes. Serum transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1) level was significantly higher in the Nociceptive pain group compared to the No pain group, suggesting that TGFβ1 may be a biomarker for nociceptive pain. The Neuropathic pain only group was too small to detect statistical differences. However, glycoprotein 130 (GP130), a coreceptor for interleukin 6, was significantly higher in the Mixed pain group compared to the groups lacking a neuropathic pain component. These data suggest that GP130 may be a biomarker for neuropathic pain in CP. PERSPECTIVE: Serum TGFβ1 and GP130 may be biomarkers for nociceptive and neuropathic CP pain, respectively. Preclinical data suggest inhibiting TGFβ1 or GP130 reduces CP pain in rodent models, indicating that additional translational and clinical studies may be warranted to develop a precision medicine approach to the management of pain in CP.
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    Standard Operating Procedures for Biospecimen Collection, Processing, and Storage: From the Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2022) Wasserfall, Clive; Dyer, Anne-Marie; Speake, Cate; Andersen, Dana K.; Baab, Kendall Thomas; Bellin, Melena D.; Broach, James R.; Campbell-Thompson, Martha; Chinchilli, Vernon M.; Lee, Peter J.; Park, Walter G.; Pratley, Richard E.; Saloman, Jami L.; Sims, Emily K.; Tang, Gong; Yadav, Dhiraj; Yazici, Cemal; Conwell, Darwin L.; Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium (T1DAPC); Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Differences in methods for biospecimen collection, processing, and storage can yield considerable variability and error. Therefore, best practices for standard operating procedures are critical for successful discovery, development, and validation of disease biomarkers. Here, we describe standard operating procedures developed for biospecimen collection during the DREAM (Diabetes RElated to Acute pancreatitis and its Mechanisms) Study within the Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium (T1DAPC). Notably these protocols were developed using an integrative process based on prior consortium experience and with input from working groups with expertise in immunology, pancreatitis and diabetes. Publication and adoption consistent biospecimen protocols will inform future studies and allow for better comparisons across different metabolic research efforts.