Genetic predictors of human chronic pain conditions
One article on PainSci cites Zorina-Lichtenwalter 2016: 38 Surprising Causes of Pain
PainSci notes on Zorina-Lichtenwalter 2016:
Zorina et al. reviewed genetic factors implicated in chronic pain conditions, reporting that there are “several strong-effect mutations” — mutations that directly cause painful pathologies, the more obvious genetic factors in pain. But they also reported “minor contributions from a large number” of minor genetic typos (single nucleotide polymorphisms).
For instance, in migraine and musculoskeletal pain patients, “nearly half” of what makes them genetically distinct from healthy people is … fishy. The difference “alters neurotransmission pathways.” That is, those people are biologically different in ways that affect how nerves do their thing — and that’s probably not a coincidence.
Nearly half! That’s a lot of subtle genetic contribution to how bodies feel.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Chronic pain conditions are multifactorial disorders with a high frequency in the population. Their pathophysiology is often unclear, and treatment is inefficient. During the last 20 years, genetic linkage analysis and association studies have made considerable strides toward identifying key molecular contributors to the onset and maintenance of chronic pain. Here, we review the genetic variants that have been implicated in chronic pain conditions, divided into the following etiologically-grouped categories: migraine, musculoskeletal pain disorders, neuropathic pain disorders, and visceral pain disorders. In rare familial monogenic pain conditions several strong-effect mutations have been identified. In contrast, the genetic landscape of common chronic pain conditions suggests minor contributions from a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms representing different functional pathways. A comprehensive survey of up-to-date genetic association results reveals migraine and musculoskeletal pain to be the most investigated chronic pain disorders, in which nearly half of identified genetic variability alters neurotransmission pathways.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
- Cannabidiol (CBD) products for pain: ineffective, expensive, and with potential harms. Moore 2023 J Pain.
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