Hot and spicy pain signals get blocked in naked mole-rats

naked mole rat

Naked mole-rats have a version of a pain-sensing protein that doesn’t respond to hot stimuli, such as the capsaicin molecule found in spicy peppers.

Thomas Park/Univ. of Illinois at Chicago

Like Marvel’s surly superhero Luke Cage, naked mole-rats are seemingly indestructible, nearly hairless creatures that are impervious to certain kinds of pain.