改變的基因導致人們完全感覺不到疼痛
Altered gene leaves people totally painfree
改變的基因導致人們完全感覺不到疼痛
Naturally occurring changes in a previously unstudied gene can prevent people from experiencing pain. And that's not good. It can leave them dangerously unaware of harm.
如果先天自然形成的基因發生自然性的改變，那麼人類感受疼痛能力將會受阻，導致他們意識不到傷害，這樣很危險！
Researchers presented the finding May 25 in Nature Genetics.
5月25日研究者在自然遺傳學上遞交了這篇報告。
The gene's name is PRDM12. Pain is the body's way of signaling that something is wrong. Certain mutations- naturally occurring changes - in that gene keep people from feeling pain. Robbed of this warning, affected people may fail to protect themselves from unintentional injuries. Such injuries could range from skin burns or scratched eyes to missing digits.
該基因叫做PRDM12，疼痛是身體意識危險的信號。特定基因突變---自然發生的改變---導致人類感受不到疼痛。這一預警信號被"劫持"後，那些受影響人將不能在無意識的傷害中保護自己。這些傷害包括皮膚灼傷，被抓撓的眼睛，甚至還包括丟失的腳趾手指等等。
However, there is some good news in the finding. Better understanding of how a mutated PRDM12 gene blocks pain might one day lead to better treatments for people who suffer from too much pain.
但幸運的是在這項調查中還有好消息，即更好地瞭解突變的基因PRDM12是怎樣阻止疼痛或許某天會應用到那些正在遭受極大痛苦的人身上。
"It's promising, but there's a long way to go," says Simon Halegoua. He's a neuroscientist at Stony Brook University in New York who did not work on the new study.
前途是光明的，但仍然還有很長的路要走，紐約石溪大學神經系統學家Simon Halegoua表示，但是他沒有參與到新研究中。
Scientists already knew that mutations in another gene caused a similar birth defect: this insensitivity to pain. In their new study, Geoff Woods of the University of Cambridge in England and his colleagues identified 11 families with mutated forms of the PRDM12 gene. The gene normally instructs cells on how to make a protein that helps pain-sensing nerve cells develop. These pain-warning nerve cells, or neurons, are called nociceptors (NO-see-SEP-terz). People born with some mutations to PRDM12 lack some nociceptor neurons that carry pain signals to the brain. The new study suggests "You need PRDM12 present to grow your pain neurons," Woods says.
科學家已經知道另一個基因突變會引起類似的先天缺陷：感覺疼痛遲鈍性，在他們的新研究中，英國劍橋大學的Geoff Woods和他的同事對11家家人的PRDM12基因變異形式進行了鑑定。基因通常會指引細胞產出蛋白質來幫助觸痛神經細胞發育。這些預示疼痛的神經細胞，也叫神經元，被稱爲傷害感受器。一些天生PRDM12基因突變的人缺乏能將疼痛信號傳輸給大腦的傷害感受器神即經元。Woods表示"新研究證明人們需要PRDM12來助長其疼痛神經原"。
