Wednesday, January 23, 2019
  Research

By Victoria Brito

Dr. Annelyn Torres-Reveron, assistant professor of neuroscience and human genetics at the UTRGV School of Medicine, is conducting research to help slow the progression of endometriosis by repurposing a drug called antalarmin, originally developed for treating depression and anxiety. (UTRGV Photo by Paul Chouy)
Dr. Annelyn Torres-Reveron, assistant professor of neuroscience and human genetics at the UTRGV School of Medicine, is conducting research to help slow the progression of endometriosis by repurposing a drug called antalarmin, originally developed for treating depression and anxiety. (UTRGV Photo by Paul Chouy)

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – A drug previously deemed clinically useless might have promise repurposed as a treatment for endometriosis, according to research being done at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

Dr. Annelyn Torres-Reveron, assistant professor of neuroscience and human genetics at the UTRGV School of Medicine, is conducting research using antalarmin – a drug originally developed as a treatment for disorders like depression and anxiety – to help slow the progression of endometriosis.

Endometriosis is an often-painful disorder in which internal uterine tissue – the endometrium — grows outside of the uterus.

Using a rat animal model, Torres-Reveron sewed uterine pieces to the rat’s mesentery, which is a fold in the lining of the abdomen that attaches intestinal organs to the abdominal cavity, to simulate what the process of endometriosis looks like.

Because a rat uterus is shaped like the letter “v,” it essentially has two functioning uterine cavities, which enables researchers to perform experiments using one side while leaving the other fully functional and intact.

“We wanted to see what was happening with the disease at the very beginning,” Torres-Reveron said. “So, we allowed it to progress for only one week, and we looked at some of the symptoms in the side of the uterus we were experimenting in.”

In the initial phase, researchers observed corticotropin release hormone receptor 1 (CRH-1), an element typically found abundantly in the brain, but also in the uterus. After one week of the initial surgery on the mesentery, Torres-Reveron found an oval- to round-shaped cyst, or vesicle, had developed, which is similar to what happens in women with endometriosis.

That vesicle was exactly what Torres-Reveron was looking for.

“We said, ‘OK, since we know that the CRH-1 level is high and that could be one of the processes of how endometriosis is starting, let’s give it this drug that blocks that process,’” she said.

The rats were given antalarmin for seven days during the initial development of the disease. After 60 days, researchers found fewer symptoms of endometriosis.

“Basically, what I am doing is preventing the disease from progressing, with a very short course of antalarmin,” Torres-Reveron said.

This research is not influenced by the estrous cycle of the rat, which is similar to the human menstrual cycle.

“We look also at phases of the estrous cycle,” Torres-Reveron said. “There are phases in the rat cycle that could be correlated to ovulation and menstruation, and antalarmin worked equally well regardless of the stage of the cycle,” she said.

Torres-Reveron said estrous cycle observations are important because endometriosis is highly influenced by hormones, mostly estrogen.

While antalarmin has been tested as a treatment for anxiety and depression in humans, but it has not been clinically effective for those disorders, she said.

“This research is exciting because it could reformulate the use of these compounds for something totally different that it is not related to the original purpose,” she said. “I came up with this idea because I come from the neuroscience field. I thought, if the CRH-1 receptor is the same in the brain and in the uterus, it has to work in the uterus, even though it was designed mainly for the brain.”

Though pain was not tested in this research, Torres-Reveron hopes to eventually look at that factor.

“Pain is one of the biggest problems in endometriosis and we hope to start addressing that in future experiments,” she said.



ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.