Super fascinating case study of a woman who has normal sensation, but doesn't feel pain due to a gene deletion. The same deletion also gives her a total lack of depression or anxiety, no adrenaline rush in dangerous situations, and sporadic short term memory loss.
It's related to endocannabinoid receptor function. Basically, she's naturally a bit stoned :)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/health/woman-pain-anxiety.html
Science nerd version: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007091219301382
@malice i read that, super interesting
@SuperDuke It's objectively not a good thing to have such reduced survival responses, but in the case of someone with chronic pain or terminal disease, a treatment based on that could give back a lot of quality of life.
@malice It def sounds like it has its down falls for that woman but if they can use her DNA/ stem cells to cure people, it sounds pretty amzing. Comic book like.
@SuperDuke Probably not a stem cell thing, it would be possible to do similar gene editing in CRISPR. Or potentially produce a medicine that replicates those effects.
@malice no sadness or anxiety with her lack of pain is really interesting. I read a study somewhere that patients with mental pain were treated with some success with physical pain meds. Wonder if it’s linked in the brain.
@malice sounds like a movie plot. Could go in so many different directions