[Magazine] Scientific American Mind. Vol. 18. No 2

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I mean, sometimes pain is in your head. But here it’s not. ” When I tell Pam Costa about this, she laughs. ” she says. “I’ve always found it helps to think some particular physiological process was causing this. Now I have the process. ” M (Further Reading) ◆ Mutations in SCN9A, Encoding a Sodium Channel Alpha Subunit, in Patients with Primary Erythermalgia. Y. Yang, Y. Wang, S. Li, Z. Xu, H. Li, L. Ma, J. Fan, D. Bu, B. Liu, Z. Fan, G. Wu, J. Jin, B. Ding, X. Zhu and Y. Shen in Journal of Medical Genetics, Vol.

It took us two months. “It was as we expected. The mutations lowered One Seven’s activation threshold. They created overactive channels that amplify and sustain. When they’re supposed to be quiet, they talk. 7 that causes erythromelalgia. In December 2006 a University of Cambridge team reported an SCN9A mutation that created a complete lack of pain sensation. ’ I don’t mean to say they’re impatient. They’re not. They’re remarkably generous-minded. But everyone needs to understand we’re really still discerning fundamental biology here.

If Merck or Abbott found on its shelves today a drug that quieted One Seven in a lab assay, it could still take 10 years. 7 makes a pretty good drug target. It appears to do little besides sending pain, so dampening it may cause few side effects. And “it expresses beautifully,” generally responding to experimental manipulation in unambiguous ways, Dib-Hajj says. “In the meantime,” Dib-Hajj observes, “I like to think that patients fi nd it helpful to know a bit more about what they have. I mean, sometimes pain is in your head.