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Cold Sensing in Newborns Develops Two Weeks After Birth, Says Research
McKemy said: "This is consistent with our observations that the circuitry is not fully developed until after birth, thus anything that disrupts this formation at this important stage could have long-term effects.
"There are other reports that injury and inflammation in rodent models that occur during the [prenatal] period lead to altered temperature sensitivity as well as altered neural circuits."
The USC researchers tracked development of cold sensing through mice genetically engineered to express a green fluorescent protein whenever TRPM8 was produced.
TRPM8 is one in a class of proteins known as ion channels. Their purpose is to "turn on the cell" when they receive a stimulus. TRPM8 senses both painful cold and the soothing cold of menthol-based creams.
How one protein can convey both sensations is unknown. McKemy speculated that neurons differ in their internal architecture, with each tuned to accept either painful or pleasant cold signals from TRPM8.
One goal of TRPM8 research is to understand the molecular mechanisms of sensation, in the hope of developing better drugs for relief of chronic pain states, such as the extreme sensitivity to cold experienced by some diabetes patients.
McKemy said: "If you want to understand conditions like cold allodynia, which is cold pain, you need to find exactly what are the targets.
"If we understand the basic nuts and bolts of the molecules and neurons and how they detect pain normally then perhaps we can figure out why we detect pain when we shouldn't."
Source-ANI
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