Gene mutation causes low sensitivity to pain

A UCL-led research team has identified a rare mutation that causes one family to have unusually low sensitivity to pain. The researchers hope the findings, published today in Brain , could be used to identify new treatments for chronic pain. They studied an Italian family, the Marsilis, which includes six people who have a distinctive pain response that has not been identified in any other people. "The members of this family can burn themselves or experience pain-free bone fractures without feeling any pain. But they have a normal intraepidermal nerve fibre density, which means their nerves are all there, they're just not working how they should be. We're working to gain a better understanding of exactly why they don't feel much pain, to see if that could help us find new pain relief treatments," said the study's lead author, Dr James Cox (UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research). One in ten people experience moderately to severely disabling chronic pain,* but treatments beyond common painkillers remain elusive.