Chronic pain may soon be treated with painkillers made from compounds found in spider venom.
Chronic pain is a type of pain that lasts longer than three to six months. About 100 million Americans are believed to suffer from chronic pain and about 25 percent of the patients suffer severe chronic pain. Chronic pain can sometimes be debilitating and it affects the quality of life on an individual.
Chronic pain costs the U.S. economy about $600 billion each year, which is greater than the combined cost of diabetes, stroke and cancer.
Currently, there are no cures for chronic pain, and treatment relieves pain temporarily. Professor Glenn King from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in The University of Queensland, Australia suggests that next-generation painkillers made from spider venom can work in easing chronic pain.
King explains about the Nav1.7 channel in humans that is related with inflammation and pain. He says that the study is trying to find a compound that can block Nav1.7 channel, which will then switch off pain in the body. Such a compound can be found in spider venom.
The study suggests that there are about 45,000 different species of spiders, and most of the species possess venom. The venom in different spiders acts differently. Some venom kills the prey while other venom blocks the nerve activity. There are about 9 million spider venom peptides but only 0.01 percent has been explored for pharmacological purposes.
The study involved examining 206 spider species and found that about 40 percent of the spider species contain at least one compound that has the ability to block Nav1.7 channel. The researchers have identified seven potent compounds but one of the compounds can be used in future painkillers.
"Untapping this natural source of new medicines brings a distinct hope of accelerating the development of a new class of painkillers that can help people who suffer from chronic pain that cannot be treated with current treatment options," says Dr. Julie Kaae Klint, who is one of the researchers of the study.
Scientists have been trying to understand therapeutic uses of spider venom for long. A 2012 study tried to understand the potential use of spider venom in treating a certain muscle disorder.
The latest study seems promising; however, it may take several years before scientists develop an effective painkiller with spider venom to be commercially available in the market.
Photo: Tijl Vercaemer | Flickr
