Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine

RUCKING FETARD

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19812064

A painkiller as powerful as morphine, but without most of the side-effects, has been found in the deadly venom of the black mamba, say French scientists.

The predator, which uses neurotoxins to paralyse and kill small animals, is one of the fastest and most dangerous snakes in Africa.

However, tests on mice, reported in the journal Nature, showed its venom also contained a potent painkiller.

Tests on human cells in the laboratory have also showed the mambalgins have similar chemical effects in people.

Cool.

With all these sorta things though, can't understand why it has taken so long to "discover" and why it'll probably be 15 years before it's available.

(If ever)

bleg

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19812064

Cool.

With all these sorta things though, can't understand why it has taken so long to "discover" and why it'll probably be 15 years before it's available.

Then you should read up on drug discovery & development. You should also read up on when it goes wrong, most notably thalidomide.

echo beach

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

With all these sorta things though, can't understand why it has taken so long to "discover" and why it'll probably be 15 years before it's available.

The surprising thing is that it has been 'discovered' at all. They tested fifty out of thousands of different snake venoms. The funding for this sort of basic research is doing cut all the time as the most likely outcome is that you find nothing. All the research is done on animals and there are strong lobbies opposed to the use of animals in research.

They say it is without most of the side-effects of morphine but until it is tested in humans we have no idea if it will have other, perhaps more dangerous, side-effects. It is often only at this stage, when hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent, that it becomes clear that a drug won't be suitable for use.

Stories like this are an attempt to drum up funding for a project that may never get any further.

RobFowl

The original article is here.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11494.html

Polypeptide toxins have played a central part in understanding physiological and physiopathological functions of ion channels1, 2. In the field of pain, they led to important advances in basic research3, 4, 5, 6 and even to clinical applications7, 8. Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are generally considered principal players in the pain pathway9, including in humans10. A snake toxin activating peripheral ASICs in nociceptive neurons has been recently shown to evoke pain11. Here we show that a new class of three-finger peptides from another snake, the black mamba, is able to abolish pain through inhibition of ASICs expressed either in central or peripheral neurons. These peptides, which we call mambalgins, are not toxic in mice but show a potent analgesic effect upon central and peripheral injection that can be as strong as morphine. This effect is, however, resistant to naloxone, and mambalgins cause much less tolerance than morphine and no respiratory distress. Pharmacological inhibition by mambalgins combined with the use of knockdown and knockout animals indicates that blockade of heteromeric channels made of ASIC1a and ASIC2a subunits in central neurons and of ASIC1b-containing channels in nociceptors is involved in the analgesic effect of mambalgins. These findings identify new potential therapeutic targets for pain and introduce natural peptides that block them to produce a potent analgesia

Xeyn

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19812064

A painkiller as powerful as morphine, but without most of the side-effects, has been found in the deadly venom of the black mamba, say French scientists.

The predator, which uses neurotoxins to paralyse and kill small animals, is one of the fastest and most dangerous snakes in Africa.

However, tests on mice, reported in the journal Nature, showed its venom also contained a potent painkiller.

Tests on human cells in the laboratory have also showed the mambalgins have similar chemical effects in people.

Cool.

With all these sorta things though, can't understand why it has taken so long to "discover" and why it'll probably be 15 years before it's available.

Xeyn

Basic research is underfunded globally which is a major problem. Why? Because governments are only interested in applied research which brings in the money.
It's notable that this has been discovered in France however as this is one country where the president has publicly backed the need for basic research so there is hope yet.