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Anyone with a boring roommate story knows that a difficult life situation can change you in many ways.
Now imagine that instead of just eating all your food in the fridge, this boring roommate could actually cause genetic modifications designed to make the "future" more tolerant of their behavior.
Does it sound too good to be true? Well, that's exactly what happened in the case of some African rodent species living in harsh conditions characterized by sour air, stinging insects and pungent food sources.
I am a behavioral geneticist who studies the interactions between genes and the environment to determine the risk of chronic pain.
My goal is to harness this knowledge to develop new therapies to better treat pain without the need for opioids.
This work on naked mole rats hit me because these creatures have developed insensitivity to very specific types of painful stimuli, says researcher Erin Young.
Opioids are a powerful tool for treating pain, especially acute pain, but they do not specifically target a specific pain mechanism or signal.
Instead, opioids act primarily to reduce the ability of cells to transmit pain messages without extinguishing the message itself.
I've been struck by this work on naked mole rats because these creatures have developed insensitivity to very specific types of painful stimuli.
This occurs because of subtle differences in gene activity and protein structure, rather than gene deletions or mutations.
It is increasingly recognized that these types of differences in gene activity may explain individual differences in susceptibility to pain in humans and risk of developing chronic pain.
More importantly, if pain researchers understood these processes in these rodents and translated them into humans, this would naturally lead to innovative methods for effective and safe pain relief.
Stinking terriers stimulate the evolution of pain tolerance
The naked mole rats, Heterocephalus glaber, are native to East Africa and live in densely populated underground burrows.
Inside these burrows, the levels of exhaled carbon dioxide are so high that the air becomes so acidic that it would result in a painful burning sensation in the nose, eyes and skin exposed to most mammals.
But the naked mole rat is completely insensitive to these conditions of high acidity, which makes it extremely tolerant of all this set.
In addition, these rodents are also insensitive to capsaicin, the chemical responsible for the burning pain of peppers.
A new study conducted by sensory systems physiologist Gary Lewin in Berlin, Germany, reveals that naked mole rats are not the only African rodents to have evolved to tolerate difficult living conditions.
By comparing nine closely related African rodent species, the Lewin team showed that four of them were totally insensitive to at least one of the three painful substances: acid, capsaicin or l & # 39; 39, AITC, the active ingredient in mustard oil.
All these stimuli cause different types of pain. The acid is the one that mimics the high rate of carbon dioxide in the burrow.
Capsaicin and mustard oil (AITC) – which cause a burning sensation – are present in typical foods eaten by naked mole rats. But each causes pain through a different biochemical pathway.
Implications for the opioid crisis
Evidence suggests insensitivity to pain with respect to acid, capsaicin and AITC, which evolve separately in related rodent species.
But in the end, these adaptations help these rodents survive and thrive in their hot, dark, acidic environments.
Evidence suggests insensitivity to pain with respect to acid, capsaicin and AITC, which evolve separately in related rodent species. The Georychus mole rat is an insensitive species to the pain caused by acid
Without major alterations in the structure and function of the pain detection pathway in their bodies, these rodents have developed many ways to reduce their sensitivity to common painful stimuli they encounter daily.
In short, these related rodent species have found more than one way to become more tolerant of their living conditions and roommates.
In my mind, understanding the molecular changes that allow the naked mole rat and its relatives to become resistant to certain types of pain has implications far beyond the roommate market.
They directly point to new therapeutic strategies that can be developed to treat pain in humans by selectively engaging or blocking the processes involved in specific types of pain sensitivity.
Faced with the epidemics of chronic pain and opioid crisis, precision medicine alternatives offer hope to people with uncomfortable pain by tackling the "cause" of pain and reducing the risk of pain. Side effects, including abuse, abuse and addiction.
WHY ARE SCIENTISTS INTERESTED IN THE RAT OF MOLE NU?
With wrinkled skin and walrus-like walruses, naked mole rats will never win beauty pageants.
Yet these creatures, who live underground in the deserts of East Africa, are part of the medical wonders of the natural world.
If a human being were to have the same life span as a bad mole rat, he would live up to 600 years of age in relation to his size.
In addition to their cancer resistance, they have very low metabolic and respiratory rates, which means that they consume little oxygen.
Scientists have made considerable efforts to sequence the genome of these creatures to understand its secrets.
The mechanisms that translate their DNA into functional molecules in cells and proteins have also proved extremely accurate.
This means that their proteins contain few errors compared to other mammals, which means that they are less likely to malfunction.
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