Annually, hundreds of thousands of patients battling cancer undergo chemotherapy, which often results in poorly-tolerated side effects such as nausea, vomiting and loss of the desire to eat.

Bart C. De Jonghe, assistant professor of nursing and senior author of a new study published on August 5 in the Journal of Neuroscience, has advanced our understanding of how chemotherapy causes side effects related to nausea, vomiting and anorexia using pre-clinical rodent models of chemotherapy-induced illness.

“This publication shows that blocking specific receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate within the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with feeding, sickness and emotion, results in a robust alleviation of sickness and anorexia produced by cisplatin chemotherapy treatment in the animals. This work has also helped us construct a clearer picture of how the anatomy of the brain is organized and connected to facilitate these observations. It is our hope that this knowledge can be used to inform future research with the goal of further limiting, or even altogether preventing, common chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients,” Dr. De Jonghe explains.

In his role as senior author and director of the project, Dr. De Jonghe coordinated with lead author Amber Alhadeff as part of an ongoing research collaboration between the De Jonghe laboratory and the laboratory of Harvey Grill in the department of psychology. This work also highlights Penn undergraduates as partners in Dr. De Jonghe’s transdisciplinary research, with laboratory members Ruby A. Holland (SAS ’16) and recent BSN graduate Alexandra Nelson (SON ’14) earning co-authorship on the paper as a result of their significant contributions.

Dr. De Jonghe is currently funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and by the American Cancer Society.