SNP of the week

This week, we look at the genetics of susceptibility to pain

What is a SNP

If you already know what a SNP is, feel free to skip ahead! SNP (pronounced ‘snip’) stands for ‘single-nucleotide polymorphism’. It is a genetics term for a site in DNA that varies within a population (the population most of us care about is all humans in the world).

Many SNPs affect different traits and this is often the basis of predicting traits or disease risk! SNPs have funny names that start with ‘rs’ followed by a number. The one we’re looking at here is rs4680.

How does rs4680 affect pain tolerance?

This SNP falls within a gene called COMT which codes for a protein that breaks down dopamine. Dopamine is the ‘reward’ or ‘feel good’ chemical in the brain. People who have an ‘A’ at this position in the gene have a slightly different protein than people who have a ‘G’ at that position. The version of the protein in people with ‘A’ is less active and these people tend to have lower pain thresholds (they are more sensitive to pain) while people with ‘G’ have higher pain thresholds.

There are many more genes and variants that are involved in pain!

We cover pain sensitivity in more detail in one of our free personalised reports — find out more here.