Pain

[John Clark]

There is an extremely rare mutation in the human genome called "FAAH-OUT" that produces "The feel Good Syndrome")  and causes the "sufferer" (not really the correct word) to be incapable of feeling pain, or to be more accurate they can experience pain but they don't find the experience unpleasant. It's called "Pain Asymbolia". Surprisingly the same mutation is also associated with reduced anxiety and fast wound healing.

Molecular basis of FAAH-OUT-associated human pain insensitivity

A woman in Scotland has this condition, she's 75 years old, very healthy, and based on an interview you can watch in the link below she appears to be a happy person. 

Rare genetic mutation allows woman to feel pain but not to find it unpleasant

Very recently a small  Public Benefit Biotechnology Company called "The Far Out Initiative" decided to spend $50,000 to see if they can use CRISPR gene editing to develop a drug based on this mutation. The company says this about it: 

"In 2019, scientists discovered a woman with a new form of congenital pain insensitivity that left her virtually immune not only to physical pain but to psychological pain as well. Unlike other forms of congenital pain insensitivity, her condition left her blissfully unaffected by fear, sadness, anger, anxiety, and grief. She is also free of the frequent injuries and early childhood self-mutilation behaviors that make other forms of congenital pain insensitivity so pathological and dangerous. Her pain-sensing neurons work, but she does not generate intrinsically unpleasant experiential qualities in response to the signals they send to her brain. Her syndrome remained unknown to her until she was well into her sixth decade of life, in contrast to other forms of congenital pain insensitivity that make themselves known immediately due to their disastrous consequences."

"On May 24th, 2023, University College London released its landmark paper investigating the molecular basis of this strange new pain insensitivity syndrome titled "Molecular Basis of FAAH-Out Associated Pain Insensitivity," in which it was revealed that this "Feel Good Syndrome" was caused by two simple genetic mutations affecting the FAAH Platform: a less active SNP of the FAAH gene and an 8KB micro-deletion at the beginning of the FAAH-OUT pseudo-gene, which lead to a drastic increase in anandamide ("the bliss molecule"). These two generic differences had a downstream impact on many genes, but only a handful of these changes were identified as relevant to physical and psychological suffering. Chief among them were the downregulation of ACKR3 - an endogenous opioid scavenger - and the upregulation of BDNF - a nerve growth factor known to impact depression and anxiety. This "Feel Good Syndrome" could be replicated using gene editing technologies like CRISPR in humans and livestock animals. Moreover, it could plausibly be reproduced pharmacologically using already existing inhibitors of FAAH (which substantially boost anandamide and BDNF) and ACKR3. These premises formed the basis upon which The Far Out Initiative developed the suffering abolitionist research program we are now pursuing."

  John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

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