An International team of researchers have found that the gene associated with the loss of our ability to sense pain is involved with the loss of our sense of smell.

For undertaking this research Professor Frank Zufall, of the University Of Saarland School of Medicine, in Germany, and colleagues tested 3 people in their 30s with a rare inability to feel pain ( also known as congenital analgesia) and found that they were also unable to sense smell at all ( a condition known as anosmia). Surprisingly, none of the subjects were aware of the fact that they couldn’t smell.

An inability of feel pain may sound intriguing, but people with this kind of condition often harm themselves leading to severe damage through frequently biting their tongues, breaking bones or even burning themselves.

It is scientifically known that the inability to feel pain is due to a particular defective gene known as SCN9A, coding for a type of sodium channel which a essential for nerve impulse conduction and sending neural messages.

Now the question arises is whether sodium channels are important in smell detection too. Researchers were able to detect this by producing a genetically altered strain of mice lacking sodium channels and an ability to smell.

This study shows that in years to come we should consider a drug for having a side-effect of smell (or lack of it), as several of the current pharmaceutical companies are targeting such particular sodium channels to invent and develop new pain relief drugs.