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Gene increases chronic pain

Gene probably increases chronic pain.

(06.08.2010) More and more people are suffering from chronic pain. It is estimated that approximately eight million people in Germany suffer from recurrent chronic pain. Researchers have now discovered a gene that is supposed to significantly affect people's sense of pain. The gene seems to be responsible for the intensity of pain in people. The research will help to develop new therapies in conventional medicine.

It has been known for some time that people experience varying degrees of pain after surgical treatments or accidents. This is also the case when the medical procedure was almost identical. By implication, this means that certain genes control the pain sensation. For quite some time now, medical experts have suspected that a corresponding genetic predisposition in patients for the development of chronic pain behind it. This question was addressed in a large-scale study by a team of international scientists.

According to Israeli researchers „Hebrew University“ In Jerusalem, the reason for developing chronic pain depends on a single gene. So could also be explained why patients in accidents or operations in part have a very different pain sensation. The discovery should make a decisive contribution to treating future, more effective chronic pain and developing new forms of therapy.

During the first study, the "chromosome 15" in mice was first discovered in a series of experiments. In this chromosome, the scientists suspected one or more genetic variants that influenced the perception of pain.

In a second study, a section of 155 genes was identified in the chromosome, in which the scientists around Ariel Darvasi suspected the pain genes. Using DNA sequence analysis and bioinformatics techniques, the researchers discovered a single gene during the study that is likely to affect animal pain perception. Previously, it was thought that the identified gene "Cacgn2" plays a role exclusively in the development of epilepsy and is responsible for tasks of the cerebellum. In further animal experiments, the gene was examined more intensively and found that in a mutation of the gene, the functions are impaired. Electrophysiological measurements and responses to pain indicated that the gene "Cacgn2" is closely linked to the course of the pain warning system.

In a third study, the importance of "Cacgn2" was localized in humans. For this purpose, the genes of breast cancer patients were examined. Patients were either partially or fully surgically removed during breast cancer therapy. The researchers examined the role of the gene on pain perception. Again, an association between different variants of Cacgn2 and the subsequent development of chronic pain after surgery could be demonstrated.

The findings, according to the scientists, should now help to develop new methods in the treatment of chronic pain. Study Director Ariel Darvasi was also optimistic: "Our discovery could open up the possibility of treating chronic pain with new, previously unthought-of methods". However, further studies on this topic would have to be undertaken in order to deepen and substantiate the results. The results were published in the medical journal "Genome Research".

What are chronic pain?
There is a distinction between pain as a warning signal and chronic pain in medicine. Because the acute sensation of pain is a warning sign of a physical impairment, chronic pain is partially replaced by the original function as a warning signal and act independently. Nerve cells can also report pain to the brain after amputations from areas of the body where, for purely organic reasons, pain should not be present. From the point of view of naturopathy, the findings of the scientists from Jerusalem are interesting because they could offer a new option in the treatment of therapy-resistant pain. However, most representatives of naturopathic manual therapies such as osteopathy or the fascial distraction model reject an exclusive representative claim of genes as cause of chronic pain. (sb, tf)