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Asked by jesus to Chris, Kay, Kerstin, Lorna, Liv on 23 Mar 2010 in Categories: Test methods.
Question: With your research into genes, have any of you ever come across the illness known as CIPA?
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Kerstin Zechner answered on 23 Mar 2010:
No, I haven’t. I’ve just googled it though, and it seems to be a very rare disease. How did you hear about it?
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Olivia Hibbitt answered on 23 Mar 2010:
Hey jesus,
are you talking about congenital insensitivity to pain?? If so, then yeah, we studied it quite a bit in Anatomy, pain is an excellent way of telling when we are doing something that is going to damage our bodies…..people with this condition tend to injure themselves quite often!
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Kay Penicud answered on 23 Mar 2010:
No, thats a disease of the nervous system and I do cancer research
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Lorna Houlihan answered on 24 Mar 2010:
No I haven’t. I only know it from the Grey’s Anatomy episode with the superhero girl. It seems to be really rare but they have found the genetic defect that causes it in a gene called “neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor , NTRK1”. I am sure they are working on understanding the effects of this genetic defect in the NTRK1 gene to help people with this condition – it sounds really awful!!
Comments
jesus commented on :
i was reading into it due to my friend mentioning such a disease, i never believed him and i wanted to know as much as possible
Kerstin commented on :
From what I just read, it seems like there is a hereditary mutation in the gene involved in creating nerve cells which are specifically needed to feel pain and heat. So individuals with the disease can’t feel any pain, which is actually quite dangerous! Apparently a lot of babies with this disease die very young, because they don’t respond to the pain involved in illnesses. Thanks for making me aware of this, it’s really interesting, but also quite sad 🙁