The “once in a generation” finding could allow scientists to create a new generation of drugs that can simply turn down up the theshold at which the body feels pain. The international study, including scientists at Oxford University, found that a gene called TRESK appears to be fundamental in causing migraines.
It is believed that it controls the sensitivity of pain nerves in the brain and if faulty can bring the threshold so low that just living is painful.
This is why migraine sufferers are so sensitive to light, sounds and even touch.
But the gene is also susceptible to being switched on and off with drugs which means that it could be altered to increase the threshold to such an extent it eliminates the feeling of pain altogether.
“We are really excited about this,” said Dr Zameel Cader, a consultant neurologist at the Medical Research Council Functional Genomics Unit at the University of Oxford.
“It is a once in a generation find that could one day lead to treatments that could prevent migraines. Potentially it is even more exciting than that.
“It could potentially lead to a treatment for pain in general. That could impact everybody.” Read more in Telegraph.
wow, imagine, with just one pill, someone could make someone else feel unbelievable pain just from touching them, while on the flip side, they can eliminate the pain factor altogether, thereby rendering a person unable to feel if someone just stabbed them or if an insect just bit them.
science is a very scary things in the wrong hands..