A variant in the SCN10A enhancer may affect human mechanical pain sensitivity

Expression of Nav1.8, encoded by SCN10A, can affect pain transmission and thus mediate the human pain phenotype. In the current study, we assessed whether the variant rs6801957, located in the SCN10A enhancer region, may have the potential to affect human pain. Through dual-luciferase reporter assays in 293T cells, we found that the SCN10A enhancer A (Enh-A) increased the activity of the SCN10A promoter (P < 0.05). Additionally, in a cohort of 309 healthy women, mutant rs6801957 A/A was found to have a significant association with decreased human experimental mechanical pain sensitivity (P < 0.05). We then found that mutant genotype A/A suppressed the increased effect of Enh-A compared with wild-type G/G (P < 0.05). The association between rs6801957 and human experimental mechanical pain sensitivity was further validated in a larger cohort of 1005 women (P < 0.05). In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the variant rs6801957 and Enh-A may affect SCN10A gene expression and play an important role in human mechanical pain sensitivity.