An alternative to opioids.

Sea Snail Venom as Efficacious Painkiller

The nature in general and the seabed in particular are an excellent reservoir of
substances with great medical properties, some already discovered and many
hidden, waiting for someone to one day give their potential.

A tiny snail may offer an alternative to opioids for pain relief. A study published in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have found a compound
that blocks pain by targeting a pathway not associated with opioids.

The opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportions. Opioids is highly addictive and
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 91 Americans die
every day from an opioid overdose. The medical community is in need of
alternative therapies that do not rely on the opioid pathways to relieve pain.

Conus regius, a small marine cone snail common to the Caribbean Sea, has a
venomous punch, capable of paralyzing and killing its prey. This poison contains
hundreds of peptides (small proteins) called 'conotoxins', some of which seem to
have potent analgesic effects in humans.

The venom it uses overloads a different pain pathway than that activated by
opioids. The 9 and 10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors were blocked by the
compound RglA4, which had been isolated from the natural poison, according to
the University of Utah team.

Interestingly, the duration of the pain relief is long, greatly outlasting the presence
of the compound in the animal's system. The compound works its way through the
body in 4 hours, but the scientists found the beneficial effects lingered.

However, until now only a drug derived from the conotoxins, called 'ziconotide', has
been tested in humans, whose use implies a great risk, since it has to be
administered directly in the lower part of the spinal cord. To test whether the
compound relieved pain, the scientists administered it to rodents that were
exposed to a chemotherapy drug that causes extreme cold sensitivity, as well as
hypersensitivity to touch. "Interactions that are not normally painful, like sheets
rubbing against the body or pants against the leg, becomes painful,".

While the untreated rodents experienced pain after exposure to the chemotherapy
drug, rodents given the compound did not experience pain. Nor did rodents that
were genetically altered rodents to lack the pain pathway receptor.
Scientists are now looking to develop a conotoxin-based medicine that can be
taken orally, something that would be much more practical for patients.