Posted on 07/28/2010 11:50:33 AM PDT by decimon
Scientists have developed a new version of a medication, first isolated from the saliva of sea snails, that could be taken in pill form to relieve the most severe forms of pain as effectively as morphine but without risking addiction. An article on the topic appears in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine.
C&EN Senior Editor Bethany Halford notes that a sea snails' saliva contains chemicals that help the slow-moving creatures catch prey. They include chemicals that the snails inject into passing prey with hypodermic-needle-like teeth that shoot from their mouths like harpoons. Scientists already have transformed one of these chemicals into a pain-reliever for humans, but it has to be injected directly into the spinal cord, limiting its use.
Now scientists in Australia have developed a form of the painkiller that can be given by mouth. It relieves severe pain, such as that in people with peripheral neuropathy, at a much lower dose than existing medications and without the risk of causing addiction. The article quotes one expert as speculating that such a drug could revolutionize the treatment of the most severe forms of pain.
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ARTICLE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Pain Relief From Snail Spit"
This story is available at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/88/8830sci2.html
By the seashore ping.
Stick some of that in my gin and tonic and surely I’ll be feeling no pain.
Potent painkiller and escargo. Sounds like a good recipe for happy hour.
If its ever discovered that Mastiff saliva is good for anything...I’m in!
The magic of sea snails has been unknown to me. But the flesh of the fugu fish makes me tingly all over.
home
Perfect for us whiteys on Obamamedicare.
Do you want the red pill or do you want snail spit?
It's good for warning you that mastiff breath is coming.
because Venom sounds so violent. We don’t want to upset the poor snails so we just call it snail spit.
/s/s/s/s
Could be the last time he skins his knee. Or the last time he lets you know he did.
Conotoxin. We had some of that in our lab, along with bungarotoxin, epibatidine, and a few others.
bungarotoxin
I don’t even want to know where that one comes from.
My thinking as well....
Seriously, my wife and I both have scars on our arms from things we came in contact with when reaching into our tank. A few of those things have been known to send some aquariumist to the emergency ward.
I don’t even want to know where that one comes from.
Or how it's administered.
If only Squidward had known this when Gary slimed him.
All well and good but the people usually in the most severe pain are in a terminal condition and the last thing that should be of concern is “addiction.”
Not true. I know most terminal patients are in pain, but not all. Both of my parents died from cancer, but the morphine kept their pain under control. I have spinal pain, and other pain, that without pain meds, would be totally unbearable. It’s not addiction, but dependence. I depend on pain medication the same way my husband depends on his diabetes and high blood pressure medication.
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