Researchers reverse perception of pain and pleasure in mice – research and technology – knowledge

With the drugs that block this docking point, you can release the chronically ill from discomfort. The study was published in the journal "Journal of Clinical Investigation."

The Austrian psychologist Michael Fritz, who works at Linköping University in Sweden and currently teaches at Stanford University in the United States, has one with colleagues Preventing the Invasion of the genome that forms the "melanocortin-4 receptor" (MC4R).

Preference for the Chamber of Secrets

Unlike "normal" conspecifics, animals treated in this way did not avoid a room where they did so. The researchers injected various things: bacterial agents that caused fever, nausea-inducing saline, and substances that negatively affected their mood balance. In contrast, mice without this hormonal docking site were even more abundant than in another room where they did not interfere.

The same thing happened after the nasal administration of an agent that blocks MC4R. In these treated animals, even the pain did not matter when they walked on hot ground. The researchers found that pain, nausea and fever in these animals did not result in a decrease in the amount of "dopamine", as in normal mice, but increased in a particular brain region (nucleus arcuatus). "Animals thus perceive things such as nausea, infections or internal stress as positive," says Fritz the APA news agency

With Nasal Spray against Malaise

"The Brain Developed a neural connection to both positive and negative be treated under the control of a single type of receptor, "said the psychologist. It may have been important in the evolution to quickly change the perception of certain environmental stimuli when necessary.

The discovery is also of clinical relevance. In patients with chronic inflammatory diseases, the suffering caused by the discomfort is very high. This leads to a loss of motivation and increases the risk that depression may be concomitant. Maybe in the future, this could be alleviated with a simple nasal spray containing melanocortin-4 receptor inhibitors.