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Original Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Presentation
Abstract
Nerve pain significantly impacts older adults, yet gabapentin's safety and efficacy vary widely. While it calms overactive nerve signals, it is also linked to dizziness, cognitive changes, fall risks, and hospitalizations. By analyzing health records and genetic markers from saliva samples, researchers identified genetic variations in drug target pathways associated with blood pressure changes and frailty. Expanding this study to nationwide datasets aims to uncover genetic predictors of response, enabling safer, personalized gabapentin therapy for older adults.
Accessibility Note
Content is digitally accessible 2026
Transcription
Our final competitor is Olajamoke Babatunde. They're from the School of Pharmacy, and their advisor is Dr. Elvin Price. Gabapentin safety and efficacy in older adults. On the count of three, I want to hear your loudest ow. Ready? One, two, three. Ow! Ooh, that sounds like it hurts. Thankfully, I didn't hurt anyone, but we all knew what that sound meant, pain. For us, that ow, that said a second. But for many older adults living with nerve pain, It follows them through the day and into the night. The pain can be burning, shooting, tingling, and all they want is for the pain to stop. Gabapentin is commonly prescribed for nerve pain. It works by calming overactive nerve signals, turning down the ow. Relief, right? Not exactly, because the experience isn't the same for everyone. While some may get relief, others may experience dizziness, confusion, problems with their balance, or even a fall. So why can the same medication affect people differently? This question drives our research. We started with 459 older adults in Richmond and found that one in four had experienced a fall, and gabapentin use was twice as common among those who fell compared to those who had not. We looked into the Virginia health records and found that gabapentin was the second newly prescribed medication associated with hospitalization, with other findings involving changes in blood pressure, cognition, and frailty. But the question remains, why does gabapentin affect people differently? So, we collected saliva samples from our community-dwelling older adults and used them to study their DNA. Think of DNA as the body's travel guide. When gabapentin enters into the body, it begins its journey through transporters that help move the drug and target where the drug acts. But small differences in our DNA, the travel guide, may influence what happens along the way. So we asked, could those differences help or explain what happens in their blood pressure measurement, cognition, and frailty score. We found our first clue that genetic differences along the drug target pathways were associated with increase in blood pressure and frailty. This suggests that our DNA may help explain why people respond differently to gabapentin. But will this clue hold in a much larger population? Now we're looking at thousands of older adults in the United States comparing their genetic and health information to understand who benefits from gabapentin and who is more vulnerable to harm. Ultimately, these genetic clues could help change the story of gabapentin in older adults, not only by relieving the pain, but by relieving it safely. Thank you.
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Transcription
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Comments
Second place winner of the 12th Annual VCU 3MT® Competition, held on October 9, 2026.