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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 21 2017, @08:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the licking-the-snail dept.

A tiny snail may offer an alternative to opioids for pain relief. Scientists at the University of Utah have found a compound that blocks pain by targeting a pathway not associated with opioids. Research in rodents indicates that the benefits continue long after the compound have cleared the body. The findings were reported online in the February 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportions. Opioids is[sic] highly addictive and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. The medical community is in need of alternative therapies that do not rely on the opioid pathways to relieve pain.

"Nature has evolved molecules that are extremely sophisticated and can have unexpected applications," begins Baldomera Olivera, Ph.D., professor in biology at the University of Utah. "We were interested in using venoms to understand different pathways in the nervous system."

Conus regius, a small marine cone snail common to the Caribbean Sea, packs a venomous punch, capable of paralyzing and killing its prey.

In this study, the researchers found that a compound isolated from snail's venom, Rg1A, acts on a pain pathway distinct from that targeted by opioid drugs. Using rodent models, the scientists showed that α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) functions as a pain pathway receptor and that RgIA4 is an effective compound to block this receptor. The pathway adds to a small number of nonopioid-based pathways that could be further developed to treat chronic pain.

Interestingly, the duration of the pain relief is long, greatly outlasting the presence of the compound in the animal's system.

The compound works its way through the body in 4 hours, but the scientists found the beneficial effects lingered. "We found that the compound was still working 72 hours after the injection, still preventing pain," said J. Michael McIntosh, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah Health Sciences. The duration of the outcome may suggest that the snail compound has a restorative effect on some components of the nervous system.

"What is particularly exciting about these results is the aspect of prevention," said McIntosh. "Once chronic pain has developed, it is difficult to treat. This compound offers a potential new pathway to prevent pain from developing in the first place and offer a new therapy to patients who have run out of options."

The researchers will continue to the next step of pre-clinical testing to investigate the safety and effectiveness of a new drug therapy.

Journal Reference:
Inhibition of α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors prevents chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain, PNAS, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1621433114

Related Articles:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-scientists-safe-non-addictive-opioid-analgesic.html


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday February 21 2017, @10:47PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 21 2017, @10:47PM (#469913) Journal

    You're absolutely right about the new drug being $100,000 per injection. The drug manufacturer will have a program to help people who are unable to pay their part of the cost after insurance. This of course is the scam. Milk the insurance for the absolute most they can wring out of it. Then 'help' the end customer so that they only have a $5 copay on a $100,000 injection.

    Example: HUMIRA, about $800 per injection. Fantastic insurance makes this only $25 per injection. Then the drug manufacturer 'helps' to bring the copay from whatever it was, in this case $25 down to $5. But they would have brought any amount of copay down to $5 for the patient. The drug manufacturer gives the patient a card for the program. The pharmacy simply bills that card as a 2nd insurance after the primary insurance. It's a pretty neat scam, if it weren't so awful. Somebody surely must be paying those insurance costs. Gee, I wonder who that could possibly be? Hmmmm.

    As for pain relief, whether opioids (tablets) offer complete relief depends on the amount of pain. If you take enough of them, say for kidney stones, they can induce nausea, which is why patients can also be given anti nausea meds with the opioids. After this episode is over, some people have no problem at all stopping use of the opioids, even though they may still have plenty left over. For other pain, occasional small doses of opioids can be used by some people for years and years without becoming addicted. Some people have a great life and have no reason to get addicted. Some people expect that opioid or alcohol use could potentially affect quality of code and thus refrain.

    I know that some people get addicted to anything. Alcohol. Opioids. Other drugs. I feel sorry for them. I don't judge them if it is something they could not help. But I do not understand what the appeal is.

    Now, back to the cost thing. For someone who only uses opioids occasionally, under a doctor's care, refilling opioids are cheap. Really cheap. Frighteningly cheap.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:11AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:11AM (#469967) Journal

    Some people expect that opioid or alcohol use could potentially affect quality of code and thus refrain.

    At the world is poorer because of that [xkcd.com]...

    (grin)

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