Deadly Venoms Help Rather Than Hurt Venomous

Deadly Venoms Help Rather Than Hurt Venomous critters may inspire the next generation of painkillers.

http://discovermagazine.com/2016/april/9-this-wont-hurt<br>

Summary The world’s current method of treating pain is to prescribe opioid pain killers, a chemical derived from poppies. Opioids work by disrupting pain receptors in the brain. They are problematic because they are very addictive and have harmful side effects. Long term use can develop tolerance in a patient. Opioid overdose is a serious problem and kills many people, more so than drug addiction. New research aims to replace opioid with venom from animals and plants, like spiders, snails, and algae. These organisms create neurotoxins, which are chemicals that disrupt the nerve signals to the brain. Because they don’t work on the brain directly, patients won’t become addicted to them or develop tolerance. This research could become reality in the next 3-5 years.

I find this research very fascinating because we are using nature to solve a problem. I don’t know how anyone came up with the idea to purposely inject patients with harmful animal venom. I wonder if this means that we will start to farm these spiders and snails to mass produce their venom.<br>

Reference Shaffer, L. (2016, February). Deadly Venom Helps Rather than Hurt. Discover Magazine.
Retrieved from http://discovermagazine.com/2016/april/9-this-wont-hurt<br>