A pensioner who feels no pain or fear could open the door to a new generation of pain-relief and anxiety medications after scientists discovered the genetic mutations that make her so rare.
For decades Jo Cameron has been cheerfully bumping, burning and bruising herself in all manner of mishap, yet she never stopped to ask why her injuries did not hurt.
She gave birth to both her children without once resorting to drugs; she laughs off offers of anaesthetic during dental work, and when she burns herself while cooking on the Rayburn in her Scottish Highlands home, often the first she knows about it is the smell of her own burning flesh.
(…)Led by University College London (UCL), the team has now alighted on two mutations – dubbed FAAH-OUT – of a gene known to play a role in endocannabinoid signalling, which is central to pain sensation, mood and memory.
Further tests revealed that Mrs Cameron’s 41-year-old son, Jeremy, also has an unusual mutation to his FAAH gene, although neither the mutation nor his relatively high pain threshold are as pronounced as those of his mother.
