Pain relievers from venom snails sea hats

The venom of the marine cone is a great medicine to develop neuropathic analgesics .

Professor Baldomera Olivera of the University of Utah conducted a study of the chemical compounds found in the venom of a marine cone to develop Prialt - a chronic pain reliever approved by FDA in 2004.

Sea snail (Photo: Animals)

There are more than 100,000 species of ocean snails, of which about 100 have evolved into venom hunters and fish hunters. The sea slugs Conus hunts fish with needle-like teeth and releases paralyzing venom containing 100 chemical ingredients.

Professor Olivera said his long-term goal is to study toxins to find key molecules that affect the central nervous system. However, at present, the exact mechanism of biological activity of the majority of amino acid chains present in the venom of sea slugs has not been determined.

The natural form of Prialt was discovered in Olivera's laboratory in 1979 by J.Michael McIntos. He is currently a professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah.

It is known that Prialt is injected into the spinal cord to treat chronic pain in people with cancer, AIDS, injury, back surgery failure and certain neurological disorders.