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Tarantula Venom Could Lead to New Effective Painkillers
Sci-News.com ^
| Feb 17, 2014
| NA
Posted on 04/27/2014 8:10:28 PM PDT by neverdem
Using an innovative screening method, a team of scientists from Australia and the United States has discovered a peptide in the venom of the Peruvian green velvet tarantula (Thrixopelma pruriens) that blunts activity in pain-transmitting neurons.
Tarantula. Image credit: Michael Gäbler / CC BY 3.0.
The novel method, named toxineering, has the potential to search millions of different spider toxins for safe pain-killing drugs and therapies.
Dr Michael Nitabach from Yale School of Medicine and his colleagues screened toxins from a variety of tarantula species to find one that blocked TRPA1, an ion channel on the surface of pain-sensing neurons that is implicated in inflammation and neuropathic pain.
By generating a small library of mutated versions of the tarantula toxin, they identified Protoxin-I – a 35-residue peptide from the venom of the Peruvian green-velvet tarantula – that blocks TRPA1 but has no effect on activity of other channels on the surface of neurons.
The beauty of the system is we can also screen engineered toxins not found in nature, and identify higher-potency and more specific molecular variants that lack deleterious effects on essential nerve functions, said Dr Nitabach, who is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Current Biology...
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: tarantulavenom; toxineering; trpa1; venom
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To: Norm Lenhart
Most of them have enough sense not to bite something too big to digest.
41
posted on
04/27/2014 9:34:18 PM PDT
by
HiTech RedNeck
(Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
To: HiTech RedNeck
So do Basset hounds. The ultimate dog.
42
posted on
04/27/2014 9:34:23 PM PDT
by
Norm Lenhart
(How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
To: Norm Lenhart; Salamander
Oh... get a room, you two.
43
posted on
04/27/2014 9:34:37 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: HiTech RedNeck
Hear that? Off in the distance? that’s the sound of Normie not caring what the little fuzzy intends.
44
posted on
04/27/2014 9:35:44 PM PDT
by
Norm Lenhart
(How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
To: Norm Lenhart
EEEEeeeeeeeeeek
45
posted on
04/27/2014 9:36:49 PM PDT
by
HiTech RedNeck
(Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
To: Norm Lenhart
46
posted on
04/27/2014 9:37:17 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
To: Salamander
Theyre my favorites!Gee... I can't imagine why.
\; )
47
posted on
04/27/2014 9:38:09 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: UCANSEE2
48
posted on
04/27/2014 9:38:23 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
To: Salamander
49
posted on
04/27/2014 9:38:49 PM PDT
by
HiTech RedNeck
(Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
To: UCANSEE2
They’re so black and *shiny*.
[seriously...can somebody mail me a few deceased ones? I have a jewelry idea]
50
posted on
04/27/2014 9:40:42 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
To: HiTech RedNeck
The newly replaced computer in the bike has been programmed for a 110” motor.
Runs a little rich but OMG the G-forces are mind blowing.
51
posted on
04/27/2014 9:42:08 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
To: Salamander
Didn’t check the whole thing out, all I see is a poster and all I hear is some typical metal rock. There’s a bike in there?
52
posted on
04/27/2014 9:45:21 PM PDT
by
HiTech RedNeck
(Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
To: UCANSEE2
53
posted on
04/27/2014 9:45:33 PM PDT
by
The Cajun
(tea party!!!, Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Louie Gohmert......Nuff said.)
To: Norm Lenhart
Because of things the size of softballs that walk on ceilings and fall on you at 3 AM and you wake up with it on your chest ;)Let your fingers do the walking and find Pest Control :)
54
posted on
04/27/2014 9:45:52 PM PDT
by
upchuck
(Support ABLE, the Anybody But Lindsey Effort. Yes, we are the ABLE!!)
To: upchuck
Well, the tarantula is trying to be the pest control. It was walking on the ceiling looking for bugs.
55
posted on
04/27/2014 9:47:11 PM PDT
by
HiTech RedNeck
(Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
To: HiTech RedNeck
It wasn’t on the youtube link.
I guess I sorta ran on, there.
56
posted on
04/27/2014 9:48:37 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
To: upchuck
In AZ thats a very expensive proposition. And they are mutant bugs. They drink Orkin juice for cocktails.
57
posted on
04/27/2014 9:49:11 PM PDT
by
Norm Lenhart
(How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
To: Salamander
He couldn’t eat Metallica without Kirk and James lifting him into a high chair ;)
58
posted on
04/27/2014 9:57:30 PM PDT
by
Norm Lenhart
(How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
To: Norm Lenhart
Ouch!
[LOL]
Seriously, they met him and he freaked them out.
59
posted on
04/27/2014 10:03:56 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
To: The Cajun
I’m a girl and I think that’s hot as jalapenos.
;D
60
posted on
04/27/2014 10:04:52 PM PDT
by
Salamander
(Minstrel In The Gallery)
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