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Sea Snail Toxin Offers Promise For Pain
Khyber writes to tell us about research out of Australia that holds out hope for chronic pain sufferers. The toxin of a sea snail, called conotoxin, has a component that has been shown to directly target pain receptors in experimental animals. Unlike essentially all existing pain relievers, conotoxin seems to suppress pain without side effects. Human trials are a year away.
Isn't a Toxin Toxic to people. Or is it just Toxic to the Snail?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Shouldn't it read "Sea Snail Toxin Offers Promise For Pain SUFFERERS"? At first I thought it was an article about some new clever torture method for Gitmo prisoners or something...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
likes to hang out in karaoke bars, or watch dancing with the stars.... oh, its not the right kind of pain? damn
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
In before "we must halt all industrial and technological advancements, to stop global warming before we lose all these wonderful natural cures!"
The bitter irony is that it's these very industrial and technological advancements that make the discovery, analysis, synthesis, mass production, and world-wide distribution at affordable prices of this painkiller possible in the first place.
It's depressing how many people demand the benefits of civilization, without accepting any of its tradeoffs.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
It's produced in red tide plankton and can be extracted from shellfish who eat red tide plankton. Very neurotoxic chemical.
"Human trials are a year away. "
Hopefully they will not patent it.
It should be noted that this toxin has been known to have a slight side effect in large doses.
Specifically DEATH.
You wont feel anymore pain now will you?
win win!
Death, the ultimate pain release...and it's good for weight loss, too.
"The toxin of a sea snail, called conotoxin, has a component that has been shown to directly target pain receptors in experimental animals." ..... What about regular animals?
Is that the next step?
Experimental animals -> regular animals -> experimental humans -> regular humans??
This could be great for people like me. I suffered a lower-lumbar spinal fracture almost seven months ago. The doctors tell me that, essentially, I have to deal with chronic neck and lower back pain for the rest of my life. I take opiate-based pain medicine twice a day for it. The stuff wigs me out sometimes, though, and I slog through the day in somewhat of a fog. Not good for a college student. Hopefully this will make it to the market, and I can finally get some pain relief without getting "high".
"We may face a scorched and lifeless earth, but they're accountable to their shareholders first."
Why not use just use cannibas?
I can grind up snails to put on my wounds...
Or I can get the pretty girl sitting next to me to kiss it better
And I'm trademarking it.....Announcing "Snotox"(TM)
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
It's not the toxin itself, rather a component of the toxin that offers the pain relief. The /. editors must've edited that out, from my original entry.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Regarding the side effects, I can speak for Prialt. My wife tried it in her infusion pump, and she had terrible problems. Massive headaches (like a spinal fluid leak), burning skin, etc. We forced our way into the Doctor's office and insisted they flush her pump out with saline. As we were leaving, we met another woman also there to cut off her Prialt because of side effects.
Isn't the toxin of the Cone Snail(correct name?) the most deadly toxin in the world? Is it a combination of multiple toxins or just a single one? If multiple, I can see this working, but if it's a single toxin then even a small dose would probably cause harmful effects as well as pain killing, in fact the painkilling might be a side effect of the harmful effects. And no, I didn't RTFA because usually they are already /.'ed and I prefer the discussions more than the actual article.
the Drug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziconotide
brief reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conotoxin
I wonder how long it will be until Rush is hooked on conotoxin. Any guesses?
(BTW, in case you don't get this, you may not be alone. I'm not even sure "Rush Limbaugh" is still on the air - anyone know for sure?)
well it probably targets the nerves responsible for pain and stops them from functioning, lots of venom contains toxins that affect the central nervous system like the black widow's for instance.
the thing id worry about is less that a huge dose would kill you, because it probably wouldnt, id worry that you could become completely immune to pain overtime and hurt yourself without even knowing, like contorting into a wierd position during sleep and breaking your own spine.
pain lets you know that your doing something wrong and you correct it, if you cant feel pain your liable to injure yourself doing mundane tasks, like walking for instance, or drinking scaldingly hot coffee, etc etc.
Irish biotechnology company Elan Pharmaceuticals markets the first commercial conotoxin analgesic, ziconotide (Prialt), for intractable nerve pain. It is from the omega-conotoxin family, one of five major families of conotoxins.
n killer-comes-out-of-its-shell/2005/07/24/112214372 8598.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/creative--media/pai
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=1104
and if you have the chops to read the study, here is a link to the abstract7 030
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/103/45/1
looks like the full text is free (unless my institution's IP range has a subscriptionn and it would otherwise be locked down)
I cannot possibly be the only person who sees military applications for this research. I don't foresee them having any trouble with funding.
This is old news there is a drug on the market based on the snail's toxin.
The drug Prialt was approved by the FDA in 2004...
There's already an anesthetic drug out there that's based off of a conotoxin. Ziconotide, from what I can tell, is a synthetic conotoxin substance based upon omega-conotoxin derived from the cone snail. Wikipedia has an entry on it, including that it's already in use as the drug "Prialt."
I don't understand why nothing in the article even mentions this already-existing drug derived from (probably different) conotoxins.
Pardon the King James, couldn't find a modern transation in short order.
You may want to bookmark http://www.biblegateway.com/ or http://www.blueletterbible.org/ for future reference.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Presumably this is a different component of conotoxin.
AccountKiller
More likely, failures tend to use it more, but would you call Paul Mcartney a failure?
Alcaholics are more failures and tend to ruin others lifes too and families, but hey its legal, because the govt
gets their cut in taxes and thats good.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
This reminds me an awful lot of an article I read in Scientific American on some research done at the University of Southern California. They did quite a lot of work with omega-conotoxin (an N-type Calcium channel blocker), a.k.a. SNX-111 and as far as I know, it has already been through certain clinical trials (see Prialt), although I am not sure about the current status of approval or the results of those trials. This article probably refers to research done on a different conotoxin, but I would recommend the Sciam article to anyone interested in learning about the mechanisms of action of these toxins. I do not know if Sciam provides free access to their archives (I doubt it), but it would be the April 2005 issue (A Toxin Against Pain).
I recently saw a very cool lecture by Baldomero Olivera, one of the people who discovered these compounds in cone snail venom. Apparently back in the day, they were trying to find the compound in cone snail toxin because it was terribly toxic and a lot of people in the Phillipines died from stepping on snails. So they took some cone snail toxin, fractionated it and then injected individual fractions into mice, expecting to see a single fraction that contained the "toxin" compound of interest. Instead, when they did the experiment they found that a large number of fractions had all kinds of crazy effects on the mice, including behavioral and motor effects. What they discovered was that there are a large number of compounds that make up the cone snail venom, each had a slightly different role in capturing prey. Some worked as short term paralysis agents that allowed the snail to capture its prey while others worked long term and allowed the snail to slowly eat its prey whole. There were also some that had overlapping function, but appeared to work better against different types of prey. Very cool talk considering it was about Cone Snails.
Hey, I think I see some applications, too! We could make a weapon that, when used in one way, heals people of the pain of their wounds. Used in a different way--say, applied to an enemy--it poisons them!
Problem is, you would want ordinary soldiers to be able to use it without a bunch of gadgets to fumble around with. It should be easy--like swinging an axe! You could call it a bioaxe! (Warning: link has embedded MIDI)
I would quote it here, but that is something that begs to be heard in the original...whatever the hell it was he was speaking. :)
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
From the original poster:
I suffered a lower-lumbar spinal fracture almost seven months ago. The doctors tell me that, essentially, I have to deal with chronic neck and lower back pain for the rest of my life.
The fracture was in the low back, and yet the neck hurts too. I wonder if the Medical Doctors offer a decent explanation for the seeming incongruity?
Drugs have their place, but it's generally much better to fix the actual problem if you can, than to just cover up the symptoms.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
Chuck Norris!
Anyone know when these animals will be moved into stable?
Even people that support medicinal marijuana don't do so for it's pain killing abilities. It only fights pain in so much as people scarfing down oreos aren't focused on their bad back.
How Soon Before...my kids in high school start sniffing this stuff? Damn kids these days...
Not for the reason you would think. I think you would be looking for the Rod of Asclepius, which predates the Nehushtan by a few thousand years. It is possible, however, that the Nehushtan was inspired by the Rod of Asclepius.
My blog
Score: -1, Flamebait. Read the followup for an Insightful post that happens to be TRUE rather than "truthy".
will travel painfully slow snail's pace along the nervous system...
Then, they'll have to come up with hummingbird-fast anti-toxin, or, maybe an multi-dimensional-gateway/time-shifting olfactory treatment...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I agree with all the above. Just wanted to add the real Osteopaths carry a "DO" (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) at the end of their name and are licensed in just the same way as a Medical Doctor. They meet the same guidelines (and then some) and can prescribe medication just like an MD can.
Bah, call me when you have it working in production animals...
"Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson
Agree - keep off the opiates (strong painkillers). I had a bad accident, did those for a while. Result = brain mixed up for a YEAR. See a decent chiro / massage guy. The regular docs said I'd be in a wheelchair at 25. I'm now 45 and going ski-ing this w/e.
First off, history teaches us that humans are unrestricted/recursively enumerable animals (refer to the constitution and the 13th amendment; as for the recursively enumerable part, I'll refer you to the bible). Next, mathematics tells us that experimental animals are also known as regular/finite animals (ok -- there are some exceptions like tape worms, but we won't get into that today). As I promised, here is the misinformation you requested: The proper stages in between regular and unrestricted animals are:
Type-3: regular animals (e.g. elephants, lions, tiger, and bears. oh my!)
Type-2: context-free animals (e.g. free range chickens, cows, etc)
Type-1: context-sensitive animals (e.g. cats, dogs, some birds, and bleeding heart liberals)
(* recursive animals go here; these include the goatse guy and people with their head up their asses)
Type-0: unrestricted/recursively enumerable animals (adam begat bob; bob begat charlie; charlie begat doug; doug begat ernest;
I hope this misinformation wasn't to your disliking. If this helps, I can also give dislectures on such topics as data structures, operating systems (vs homeopathic remedy systems), and nondeterministic computation.
. . .more time & effort is spent on hiding a symptom than on finding a cure for the cause.
I'm a chronic pain sufferer myself - I spend 8 hours a day on a PC and I have RSI in both hands. Yet I wouldn't touch this stuff with a 10-foot pole. The pain is telling you that you're doing yourself damage. Masking the pain so you can do yourself even more damage in complete comfort is the worst thing you could possible do.
For myself, I learned that improving my posture was enough to stop the RSI causing me a tortuous day: Little things, like keeping my shoulders back instead of slumped forward; and not letting my hands bend backwards so the tendons in my wrist scrape against each other and the joint, eliminated more of my pain than all the wrist supports, ergonomic chairs, and painkillers ever did.
So.. it has come to this
By you?
Well, that puts the issue to rest!
Even NORML's website doesn't reference pain-killing as a reason for it's use. It talks about it's benefits as an anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, appetite-stimulant, etc.
So please, put down the doobage.
I bet a year from now there's a side effect that requires me to pour salt in my wound.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Of all of the times that's been said of a new drug, I wonder just how rarely it was actually true.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I can remember a New Scientist article on this from when I was at school or a first year undergrad (~10 years ago). If I recall conotoxin was a promising drug candidate due to its receptor specificity (i.e. pain receptors only) and was reckoned to be approx. 200 times more potent than morphine without the side effects. Its good to see that progress is being made in this area of research.
These things are very pretty and very deadly as well.
...etc and all was good. When they unzipped the wet suit, a live cone shell fell off. What seemed to have happened is that she saw this pretty shell and did not know it was toxic. She just decided to keep it safe and unzipped the suit and tucked it in.
The proper name for them is not "sea snails" (there are lots of snails in the sea). The are called cone shells or cone snails. See the Wikipedia article on them.
I used to see them when snorkeling in the Red Sea. They are one of the few snails that are "clean" since they have a mantle withdrawn over the shell and hence algae and barnacles do not attach to it. The other snail that does that is the cowrie shell. If you find a dirty shell, then it is because the animal inside it has died, and the algae has move on it.
The cone shells are very very toxic and as far as I recall have no antidote. They have a harpoon like needle that injects venom, and a proboscis to swallow prey with.
One true horror story from Sinai in Egypt was about a woman tourist who was found dead under the water after scuba diving. They took the body out and checked the regulator, the air supply,
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Shit, I'm so late making this comment. But then again, Slashdot is waaaaay late posting the article.t m
From 2005: http://www.nih.gov/nihrecord/03_01_2005/story03.h
Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
Scientific American had it too: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colI D=1&articleID=000D45AD-46FB-1237-81CB83414B7FFE9F
April 2005 issue
INNOVATION
A Toxin against Pain
For years, scientists have promised a new wave of drugs derived from sea life. A recently approved analgesic that is a synthetic version of a snail toxin has become one of the first marine pharmaceuticals
thegodmovie.com - watch it
mao...
I have ridden the mighty moon worm!
Does it work for Windows Vista?
> to directly target pain receptors in experimental animals.
Man, I've got to get me some of those. Here I've been using the traditional, evolved sort. I bet I could get lots better results from my experiments if my animals were experimental too. And then maybe some experimental humans.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
i don't mean to sound condescending, or anything like that, but i heard and watched a program where this very thing was talked about in length two or three years ago...
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ Ron Paul for President 2008 http://www.infowars.com/
Aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), etc are anti-inflammatory drugs. They block the body's response to provocations which is often what causes most of the pain. They all have the unfortunate side effect of irritating the stomach lining and increasing the chances of getting an ulcer. Nobody really knows how many (mostly elderly) people die from internal bleeding caused by these drugs every year.
Opiates affect the way the brain perceives pain. They work great and are relatively safe - but addictive. Some people find them pleasurable but most people don't really enjoy the experience. Both groups can become addicted if they use them often enough. The first group is simply more likely to do so for non-medical reasons.
Nobody is really sure how acetaminophen (Tylenol) actually works. It appears to be a variant on anti-inflammatory drugs with fewer side effects but it may also have some direct effect on the brain. It's safe and effective for minor pains but its usefulness is limited for severe pain because larger doses are toxic to the liver. This one also kills many people every year who don't take the warnings seriously. Many of the victims are children.
A new drug that affects the pain receptors directly could be a welcome addition to this arsenal.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
> The toxin of a sea snail, called conotoxin, has a component that has been shown to directly target pain receptors in experimental animals.
So the researchers actually tortured test animals to be able to test painkillers on them? That is gross and unacceptable.
I can now understand PETA digging up the dead relatives of test animal industry people and blackmailing them out of business by hiding the corpse. Anything is allowed to vanquish these Mengeles!
My problem was pain from a herniated neck disk. Among my different aspects of my life it was a severe problem during a vacation at the beach while lying on my stomach in the sun with my head turned to the side to breathe. I ultimately invented and patented the SquidFace and ComfyRest pillows to relieve my pain. These pillows enable me to lie facedown comfortably and breathe without turning my head to the side. Unexpected benefits of these pillows are snoring relief; Neck, shoulder and back muscle tension relief; sinus, migraine, ear pain, snoring and more. Stomach sleepers are finding their backs feel better after using these pillows. Many of the benefits are on my website. www.SquidFace.com
I pray that the congressman who are responsible for the D.E.A. doing this have the most intense chronic pain for the last 20 years of their lives, and have no recourse to stop it. They've made their own bed.
Read more about it on http://www.drcnet.org/ among other places.
The D.E.A. is not supposed to make medical decisions. You, the voter, let this happen. And if there is any justice: You, the voter, will feel intense chronic pain for supporting this (note: comment applies only to those who voted for those who caused this to happen -- mostly republicans.)
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com