--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Aditya Kapil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Does SCN9A refer to an ion channel? > Adit.
Its been a while since I worked on ion channels, but I will give it a shot... The ion channel referred to here is a sodium ion channel. Sodium ion channels are usually consist of a combination of several subunits where each subunit is a protein (or more correctly a peptide). Each protein is coded for by a distinct gene. The SCN9A is the name of a gene that codes for one of the sodium channel subunits. Mutations in sodium channel genes cause a gamut of weird problems: epilepsy, periodic paralysis, cardiac arrythmias, etc. The interesting feature of the SCN9A mutation is that selectively effect pain only. Disease that Sastry cites: leprosy, diabetes, etc lead to loss of pain as well as other modalities like touch, pressure, temperature, etc. The cool thing would be to come up with a drug that mimics the SCN9A mutation: then you could remove pain without removing any other sensory function. - Shyam
