Mole rats are said to be the closest thing to having super powers on this earth. This is said because for a small rodent, they are able to live up to 32 years, have cancer-resistant tendencies, and are not phased by certain types of pain. Recent research has found what has made the naked mole rat pain-free by identifying the evolutionary change that causes this to occur. In a nutshell it's basically as if the signal for pain was semi-turned off to allow for the feeling of pain but not completely enough to harm the animal. This happens because the TrkA receptor of the naked mole rat isn't dysfunctional but hypo-functional. The hypo-functionality of this receptor in the mole rats allows them to survuve without neurodegeneration that is found in animals with mutations that have the Nerve Growth Factor shut down. Researchers believe that evolution selected the TrkA receptor that works when they are babies, but goes away when they enter adulthood. Because they live in underground desert regions, evolution has shut down functions, including nerve receptors, to allow them to live in these conditions. Future plans for this research are to inject mice with the TrkA receptor found in naked mole rats and see if the mice will display the features in that of the mole rat.
Journal Reference:
- Damir Omerbašić, Ewan St. J. Smith, Mirko Moroni, Johanna Homfeld, Ole Eigenbrod, Nigel C. Bennett, Jane Reznick, Chris G. Faulkes, Matthias Selbach, Gary R. Lewin. Hypofunctional TrkA Accounts for the Absence of Pain Sensitization in the African Naked Mole-Rat. Cell Reports, 2016; 17 (3): 748 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.09.035
I had no idea mole rats had such superior genetics. Looking at them and knowing they are subterranean I would assume they are extremely vulnerable to cancer, like the red heads of the animal kingdom. The fact that they aren't susceptible to any of these things is extremely interesting. A 32 year life span is also uncommon for rodents so I wonder how close scientist are to isolating the genes responsible and if they have plans to transplant the genes into other species. Besides the applications to increasing human health it would be nice to have cats and dogs that could stay healthier, longer.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. I'm not sure how to feel about it, though. Obviously being cancer resistant would be great, but not being able to feel pain makes me think of super heroes. And as much as I'd love to have a Captain America flying around, I'm a little hesitant.
ReplyDeleteThis is completely fascinating. I like you really only knew anything about mole rats from Kim Possible, I had no idea how interesting they actually are. It s mind blowing to me that they can live that long, and have no pain. I'm am very curious to see what those trials result in where they inject the mice. This could potentially lead to an interesting discovery.
ReplyDeleteCool, I never knew mole rats were anything other than just ordinary rodents. I am curious though about one thing. The reason we feel pain is to warn us about something that could potentially really hurt us. What if something that could hurt or kill the mole rat is happening to it, but it has no idea because it can't feel it?
ReplyDeleteSo the receptor that the mole rat has allows it to be pain-free, but when it gets to a harming point or even death the receptor is able to detect that much pain. I'm not too sure how exactly that works though.
DeleteSince the TrkA receptor keeps the naked mole rat from feeling pain, I wonder if research on this could lead to the production of a new pain medication for humans. Perhaps it could even have less addictive properties than some of the current painkillers.
ReplyDelete