endorphin deficiency

[Spooky Mulder]

I'm not talking about opiate-addicts that lack production of endorphins because of years of abuse.

I'm wondering if some people are born with endorphin deficiencies. The same way people with parkison's disease lack dopamine, are there people out there that lack endorphins? If so, would they be treated with opiates?

 

[BilZ0r]

People who have Parkinsons have low dopamine, and this can be assumed because of several behavioural effects as well as gross structural changes in their brains. I.e. a massive shrinkage of on of the brains dopaminergic nuclei.

No one has noted people with either the behavioural phenotype of low endogenous opioids, or structural deficits of opioid-ergic nuclei.

Importantly, someone could probably live a completely happy life in this day and age, and never notice anything, if they did suffer from low opioid expression.

 

[VelocideX]

There's been experiments with knockout mice... mice with one of the endorphin genes knocked out (I think) don't bond properly with their mother; they appear ambivolent towards their father/mother. I'd have to check, my memory on it isn't very good. Only saw it in passing in a New Scientist.

 

[BilZ0r]

They would have to knock out the pre-pro-opioimelanocortin gene... thats gonna knock out at least 7 neurotransmitters...

I believe there are spontaneously B-endorphin deficient mice, and they become obesse easily, but who knows whether thats due to the beta-endorphin deficency, or from what causes the deficency (I'd geuss the mice are deficent in pre-pro-opiomelanocortin, which means not only no beta-endorphin, but also no melanocyte-stimulate hormone and adrenocorticotrophic hormone... which is bound to fuck up adiposity)