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Opioid Use DisorderNCT07693270

Identifying Biomarkers Related to Opioid Use and Pain Response Following Traumatic Injury and Surgery

An observational study of Opioid Use Disorder and Opioid Consumption, run by University of California, San Diego at 1 site in United States.

Recruiting

Looking for participants now. Contact the study team or a site below to ask about taking part.

Sites and contacts
Official record
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Trial summary

The mechanisms leading to opioid tolerance or dependence are not well understood and there are currently no biomarkers for predicting who is at risk for development of OUD. The purpose of this project is to support the feasibility of detecting a miRNA bio-behavioral signature of opioid misuse risk that will… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
How many people
100 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
15 Jul 2026to Jun 2027
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
Not yet: the study is under way

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Study population: We will recruit up to 100 participants prospectively from UC Health sites, including Jacobs Medical Center, Hillcrest Hospital, McGrath Outpatient Pavilion, and Koman Outpatient Pavilion. Eligible participants will be identified by reviewing newly admitted patients in the trauma service and/or surgical suite (same day as surgery preoperatively).

Who may be able to join

  • Patients 18 years of age or older
  • Patients admitted for traumatic injury at Hillcrest or Jacobs Medical Center or patients who will undergo the orthopedic (e.g., joint, spine), abdominal, breast, vascular (e.g., amputation), or thoracic surgery.

Who cannot join

  • Patients with a prior history of opioid use disorder or dependence
  • Pregnant women
  • Prisoners
  • Patients with an inability to independently provide informed consent to participate in the study due to lack of capacity. This lack of capacity can be from either a chronic/continuous condition (i.e. dementia), or can be temporary (i.e. clear signs of intoxication at the time of the visit (not alert or oriented, slurring words [and confirmed not to be baseline], unsteady gait [and confirmed not to be baseline], or appears impaired based on clinical judgement by PI/Co-I)).

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

United States1 site, 1 recruiting
  • University of California, San Diego

    La Jolla, California, 92037

    Rodney A Gabriel, 858-663-7747, ragabriel@health.ucsd.edu

    Rodney A Gabriel

    Recruiting

Other trials in United States

About this study

The mechanisms leading to opioid tolerance or dependence are not well understood and there are currently no biomarkers for predicting who is at risk for development of OUD. The purpose of this project is to support the feasibility of detecting a miRNA bio-behavioral signature of opioid misuse risk that will demonstrate improved predictive precision compared to current tools such as polygenic risk scores (PRS). Specifically, the study will address key goals of the Wellcome Leap program to develop scalable measures assessing individual addiction susceptibility and quantifying addiction risk and progression during prescription drug use. The study will utilize behavioral, genomics, and bioinformatics pipelines to characterize opioid-induced miRNA expression dynamics among trauma and surgical patients prescribed opioids at discharge. Based on results from this study, the research will develop a high-throughput screening assay to predict risk for opioid use disorder (OUD). The hypothesis is that miRNAs will serve as powerful bio-signatures for predicting long-term clinical outcomes in patients treated with opioids for pain management following trauma injury and/or surgery.

Read the detailed description

The mechanisms leading to opioid tolerance or dependence are not well understood and there are currently no biomarkers for predicting who is at risk for development of OUD. The purpose of this project is to support the feasibility of detecting a miRNA bio-behavioral signature of opioid misuse risk that will demonstrate improved predictive precision compared to current tools such as polygenic risk scores (PRS). Specifically, the study will address key goals of the Wellcome Leap program to develop scalable measures assessing individual addiction susceptibility and quantifying addiction risk and progression during prescription drug use. The study will utilize behavioral, genomics, and bioinformatics pipelines to characterize opioid-induced miRNA expression dynamics among trauma and surgical patients prescribed opioids at discharge. Based on results from this study, the research will develop a high-throughput screening assay to predict risk for opioid use disorder (OUD). The hypothesis is that miRNAs will serve as powerful bio-signatures for predicting long-term clinical outcomes in patients treated with opioids for pain management following trauma injury and/or surgery.

The specific aim is to develop a new conceptual framework to validate DNA< mRNA, and miRNAs as biomarkers of persistent opioid use among patients after traumatic injury and/or surgery.

The primary goal is to correlate patterns in miRNA sequencing with persistent opioid use after trauma/surgery.

The study will recruit up to 100 adult (>18 yo) participants prospectively from UC Health sites, including Jacobs Medical Center, Hillcrest Hospital, McGrath Outpatient Pavilion, and Koman Outpatient Pavilion. Eligible participants will be identified by reviewing newly admitted patients in the trauma service and/or surgical suite (same day as surgery preoperatively).

The study will collect baseline data including baseline clinical and demographic data, pain/opioid use from surveys/questions, social determinants of health (from survey), and biospecimens (blood for DNA and miRNA sequencing). Data will be collected initially near estimated hospital discharge (baseline), at 7 days post-discharge, 1 month post-discharge, 3 months post-discharge and 6 months post-discharge.

The proposed project will identify a miRNA signature associated with risk for persistent opioid use (defined as ongoing opioid use at 1, 3 and 6 months after index time point) in patients following exposure to opiate medication after traumatic injury/surgery. It is expected to demonstrate improved predictive precision with the miRNA signature compared to current tools alone (PRS, ORT). Success of this project will provide the go signal for a subsequent implementation study to develop a miRNA test kit and optimize the use of this screening tool and its potential to inform targeted interventions to prevent persistent opioid use and OUD after traumatic injury/surgery.

Keywords
opioid use disorder, artificial intelligence, persistent postsurgical pain
Medical subject headings
Opioid-Related Disorders, Pain, Postoperative

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Study groups in NCT07693270
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Persistent Opioid Use CohortPatients who develop persistent opioid use after surgery (defined as any ongoing opioid use >3 months after admission for trauma injury)
Non-persistent Opioid Use CohortPatients who do not develop persistent opioid use after surgery (defined as no ongoing opioid ≥ 3 months after surgery)

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Persistent Opioid Use

    We will collect blood from participants (about 15mL total) for DNA, miRNA, and mRNA sequencing. The blood draw for miRNA and mRNA sequencing, DNA genotyping, and bioinformatics analysis will be conducted at baseline and at subsequent in-person time points. All biospecimens will be sequenced and analyzed at UCSD's Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. We will also collect baseline demographic, clinical and social data (including social determinants of health questionnaire, electronic health record data, demographic such as age, sex). These markers will be assessed for association of persistent opioid use defined as ongoing opioid use for more than 3 months after trauma/surgical admission.

    Measured: 3 months after trauma injury/surgery

Secondary outcomes (3)
  1. Pain via Brief Pain Inventory

    The Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) is well-validated in clinical populations and will measure participants' self-reported pain on a 0 ("no pain") to 10 ("most severe pain") scale. We will use this survey to assess for average, minimal, and maximum pain and interference scores at multiple time points

    Measured: Baseline, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery

  2. Opioid Use Questionnaire

    Opioid use will be collected directly from the electronic health record data and ascertained by patient report at the follow-up time points. At the 1-, 3-, and 6- month time point, we will elicit the average number of pain pills (name, dosing, frequency) over the last 7 days. This will be converted to oral MME.

    Measured: Baseline, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery

  3. PROMIS-29 Questionnaire

    The PROMIS-29 questionnaire assesses a patient's physical and social well-being and measures pain intensity using a single 0-10 numeric rating item and seven health domains (physical function, fatigue, pain interference, depressive symptoms, anxiety, ability to participate in social roles and activities, and sleep disturbance).

    Measured: Baseline, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after surgery

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted9 Jul 2026
  2. Study start15 Jul 2026
  3. Primary completionJun 2027 (estimated)
  4. Study completionJun 2027 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrolment
100 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT07693270
Sponsor's protocol ID
814524
Status last verified
Jun 2026
First submitted
2 Jul 2026
Last updated
17 Jul 2026
Results posted
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
Undecided

Publications

  • Jones J, Correll DJ, Lechner SM, Jazic I, Miao X, Shaw D, Simard C, Osteen JD, Hare B, Beaton A, Bertoch T, Buvanendran A, Habib AS, Pizzi LJ, Pollak RA, Weiner SG, Bozic C, Negulescu P, White PF; VX21-548-101 and VX21-548-102 Trial Groups. Selective Inhibition of NaV1.8 with VX-548 for Acute Pain. N Engl J Med. 2023 Aug 3;389(5):393-405. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2209870.

    PubMed 37530822
  • Zhang Z, Wang JJ, Ping ZG, Jin XG, Yang JJ, Wang Y, Chu QJ; Pain Group of the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology. The Impact of Opioid-Sparing Analgesia on Postoperative Pain and Recovery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Pain Ther. 2025 Oct;14(5):1473-1497. doi: 10.1007/s40122-025-00762-2. Epub 2025 Jul 25.

    PubMed 40711665
  • Gabriel RA, Swisher MW, Sztain JF, Furnish TJ, Ilfeld BM, Said ET. State of the art opioid-sparing strategies for post-operative pain in adult surgical patients. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2019 Jun;20(8):949-961. doi: 10.1080/14656566.2019.1583743. Epub 2019 Feb 27.

    PubMed 30810425
  • Barocas JA, Savinkina A, Adams J, Jawa R, Weinstein ZM, Samet JH, Linas BP. Clinical impact, costs, and cost-effectiveness of hospital-based strategies for addressing the US opioid epidemic: a modelling study. Lancet Public Health. 2022 Jan;7(1):e56-e64. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00248-6. Epub 2021 Nov 30.

    PubMed 34861189
  • Jivraj NK, Raghavji F, Bethell J, Wijeysundera DN, Ladha KS, Bateman BT, Neuman MD, Wunsch H. Persistent Postoperative Opioid Use: A Systematic Literature Search of Definitions and Population-based Cohort Study. Anesthesiology. 2020 Jun;132(6):1528-1539. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000003265.

    PubMed 32243330
  • Brummett CM, Waljee JF, Goesling J, Moser S, Lin P, Englesbe MJ, Bohnert ASB, Kheterpal S, Nallamothu BK. New Persistent Opioid Use After Minor and Major Surgical Procedures in US Adults. JAMA Surg. 2017 Jun 21;152(6):e170504. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2017.0504. Epub 2017 Jun 21.

    PubMed 28403427

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Opioid Use Disorder and Opioid Consumption, run by University of California, San Diego at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 2 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 17 Jul 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Rodney A Gabriel (858-663-7747, ragabriel@health.ucsd.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Persistent Opioid Use (time frame: 3 months after trauma injury/surgery). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT07693270, which also lists 6 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 17 Jul 2026.

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