How Naked Mole Rats Beat Chili Pepper Heat

Jan. 30, 2008— -- Baby naked mole rats are puny, bluish-pink and -- as their name implies -- utterly without fur.

Place them in your hand, and it's as if your palm has sprouted a new, squirming set of bruised fingers. Put them on a platter, and they resemble cocktail weenies without the toothpicks.

Cute they are not. But some pain researchers might tell you that the tiny, buck-toothed visage of this creature may one day be the face of future advancements in pain management.

So suggests University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Thomas Park. A professor of biological sciences at the university, Park was also lead investigator of a study that revealed the curious adaptations of naked mole rats that altered the way they experience pain. This research was published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Biology.

In short, the rodents seem to be as sensitive to pinching, poking and burning as other mammals are. But when it comes to exposure to acid and capsaicin -- the chemical that gives a spicy, stinging kick to jalapenos and pepper spray -- the naked mole rats are the tiny Bruce Willises of the animal kingdom. They simply don't seem to feel the pain.

"When we applied these substances, there was absolutely no response," Park says. "They completely didn't care."

The research may go further than just shedding light on these denizens of the dark, who spend most of their lives underground, huddled by the hundreds in an area the size of your average shoe box.

Indeed, one of the chemicals of special interest in the findings -- a neurotransmitter known as substance P -- is a common component of pain responses in nearly every mammal, including humans.

"This is the same substance P that, in humans, goes crazy when you have some long-term type of injury that involves chronic pain or inflammation, such as a pulled muscle or post-surgical pain," Park says.

But could the findings in these odd creatures actually have implications for pain in humans? Dr. Doris Cope, a professor and vice chairman of pain medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pain Medicine Program, says that new findings on the way substance P works actually might lead to new approaches for certain types of pain.