Nathaniel Jeske
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX·Neuroscience
Poor sleep and chronic pain travel together: more than 40% of people with sleep disorders also report a chronic pain condition. Obstructive sleep apnea, in which breathing repeatedly stops during sleep and blood oxygen dips over and over, is a common example.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
chronic pain
hyperalgesic priming
obstructive sleep apnea
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2028
What they work on
- Identify where pain-sensing neurons and immune cells interact after chronic intermittent hypoxia, using a rodent model that mimics obstructive sleep apnea together with in vivo imaging and behavioral tests of pain sensitivity.
- Map the distribution of M1 versus M2 macrophage states, the inflammatory and repair-associated forms of these tissue immune cells, in peripheral pain-sensing tissues and test whether this polarization is required for hyperalgesic priming.
- Test whether low oxygen activates peripheral macrophages directly to increase inflammatory cytokine production, using FACS cell sorting and RNA profiling of resident versus infiltrating macrophage populations.
- Use transgenic and Cre-Lox mice, which allow genes to be deleted in selected cell types, to determine whether macrophage-derived signals are necessary for the transition from acute to chronic pain after intermittent hypoxia.
More about the research
Why these repeated drops in oxygen should leave someone with lasting pain is largely unknown. Work here aims to explain that link at the level of cells and signaling, with the long-term goal of reducing persistent pain in people with sleep disorders.
Why it matters
Tens of millions of Americans have sleep disorders, and a large share of them live with chronic pain that current treatments address poorly. By identifying the specific immune cells and signals that convert repeated nighttime oxygen loss into lasting pain sensitivity, this work could point to new drug targets and to treatment strategies that address sleep and pain together rather than separately, potentially improving quality of life for patients with obstructive sleep apnea.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mohammad Badran
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO·Physiology
Test whether the MR blockers spironolactone and finerenone reverse coronary microvascular dysfunction in obese male and female mice exposed to short- or long-term intermittent hypoxia, a mouse model of sleep apnea.
John Alverdy
University of Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how gut microbiota composition, the metabolites it produces, and resulting macrophage states relate to recovery from surgical infection, in mice and in the setting of critical illness.
Karen Cyndari
University of Iowa, IA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Measure whether Borrelia burgdorferi infection breaks down the tight-junction barrier formed by resident synovial macrophages, using infected human synovial explants imaged by confocal microscopy and histomorphometry.
The school
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio: 15 labs on PI Pages, $313M a year on research, 149 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
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