Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a nonselective cation channel that is expressed in the sensory neurons and responds to various noxious stimuli including heat and capsaicin. The molecular properties of TRPV1 have been clearly examined; however, there are obvious individual differences in human sensitivity to thermal stimuli and capsaicin. Here, we examined the possibility that different genome sequence of human TRPV1 caused the different sensitivity to heat or capsaicin. The sensitivities to burning pain and capsaicin of Japanese adult subjects were compared with their TRPV1 genome sequence, and we detected 6 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 11 single-nucleotide polymorphisms related to burning pain and capsaicin sensitivity, respectively. In particular, homozygous I585V, a single-nucleotide polymorphism with amino acid substitution, significantly related to higher capsaicin sensitivity.
Keywords: TRPV1; burning pain; capsaicin; single-nucleotide polymorphism.