Australian Researchers Studying Whether Spider Venom Can Help Create New Painkillers
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iStock/Thinkstock(QUEENSLAND, Australia) — Researchers in Australia believe that elements of spider toxins could be used to create new painkilling drugs.
A study recently published in the British Journal of Pharmacology notes that chronic pain is a “serious worldwide health issue,” and that current painkillers have limited efficacy and are limited in the doses they can be taken in due to potential side effects. Some spider venoms, however, contain elements that block a specific channel that transmits pain.
The study indicates that about 40 percent of the 205 spider venoms screened contain at least one element that was deemed an inhibitor of hNav 1.7, a sodium channel which, when mutated in a particular way, can make humans indifferent to pain.
“We’ve got a massive library of different venoms from different spider species and we’re branching out into other arachnids: scorpions, centipedes and even assassin bugs,” Dr. Jennifer Smith, a research officer at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience told the Wall Street Journal.
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