According to a combined study by King's, Pfizer Ltd and the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), genetic variations may relate to pain sensitivity. Scientists have found a new method to study these variations though "exome sequencing," reports Medical Xpress.
Researchers conducted an experiment to identify sensitivity levels in different people. The experiment included 2,500 people and placed a heating probe on their arm. Participants were asked to alert by pressing a button when the heat became unbearable.
The process helped researchers identify the sensitivity threshold of every individual. Once all the participants reached the limit of the bearable pain, researchers used the method of exome sequencing to analyze the DNA of 200 most pain sensitive and 200 of the least pain sensitive participants, according to Medical Xpress.
"Chronic pain is a significant personal and socio-economic burden, with nearly one in five people experiencing it at some time in their lives," lead author Dr Frances Williams, from the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London said, according to Medical Xpress. "Current pain treatments often have either limited efficacy or side effects for many, so the possibility of a new approach to pain relief is an exciting development."
"More and more evidence supports our theory that rare variants, which were overlooked in genome-wide association study, play a very important role in complex diseases and traits," Xin Jin, project manager from BGI said. "The next generation of sequencing will make it possible to explore these rare variants and will lead to a wave of new discoveries in biomedical research."
The results showed that participants with less variation in DNA were more sensitive to pain than the ones who were pain insensitive.
"Further studies are needed to understand fully the genetics that underlie pain sensitivity in humans, but early studies in this area are promising," said Serena Scollen, Geneticist from Pfizer and co-author on the work, according to Medical Xpress.
Ruth McKernan, Chief Scientific Officer of Pfizer's Research Unit in Cambridge that works on new pain drugs says these new findings will help in new and promising ways of treating pain.
"This study demonstrates the value of collaborative efforts between academia and industry," McKernan said. "The genetic influence on normal pain processing in human volunteer populations will add to other approaches and help us prioritise potential new mechanisms for treating pain."
The study is published in an online journal PLOS Genetics.
