Scientists learn to turn off sensation of cold

Scientists learn to turn off sensation of cold


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SALT LAKE CITY — That moment when an icy beverage hits your lips, or the feeling of a blast of air conditioning. How about the first 30 seconds you spend in a pool?

Not only do scientists understand how you feel all these amazing sensations of cold, they can now turn them off entirely without affecting the sensation of heat, which you might not want in the middle of a summer heat wave. If you were a cancer patient whose sense of cold was made excruciating by chemotherapy, on the other hand, you'd welcome the news.

In a study conducted by David McKemy, associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Southern California, researchers were able to turn the sensation of cold off in mice.

McKemy identified a protein known as TRPM8, which is responsible for detecting not only temperature, but also the feeling of cold that comes with menthol, or mint-flavored things. It is related to the receptors that detect the pain caused by hot peppers or pepper spray.

McKemy isolated the neurons in the bodies of mice that had the protein, and were able to turn those neurons off, effectively cutting off the feeling of cold.

Normal mice placed in temperatures that varied from freezing to over 120 degrees tended to favor the warmer areas and avoided the cold. The mice with their TRPM8 neurons deactivated didn't care at all that they were in cold, and showed no temperature preference.

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What's especially interesting is that the mice without TRPM8 neurons could still detect heat just fine. Moreover, the normal mice and engineered mice performed equally well on dexterity tests when they were cold. So, while they could not feel the cold, it still affected their ability to move.

The study has implications for pain management. It shows progress is being made in selectively determining sensations and shutting them off.

"The problem with pain drugs now is that they typically just reduce inflammation, which is just one potential cause of pain, or they knock out all sensation, which often is not desirable," McKemy said. "One of our goals is to pave the way for medications that address the pain directly, in a way that does not leave patients completely numb."

Further, several diseases, or the treatments for them, leave patients extremely sensitive to cold. This moves the work forward in developing treatments for symptoms, though turning these neurons off is irreversible at this point.

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David Self Newlin

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