Deadly Sea Snail Venom to Ease Persistent Pain

A new treatment called Prialt was launched on the 9th of July this year in UK. It is made from the venom of a deadly tropical sea snail and was designed to ease persistent pains in people that suffer from various types of cancer and other very serious diseases. It is a very powerful drug, as it was created to reduce chronic pains in individuals that no longer responded to morphine therapy.

The venom of the sea snail called Conus magus from the Philippines served as example for the medical experts that have further developed a man-made version of the snail venom. Conus magus is a predatory sea snail that uses its venom to paralyze and catch fish.

The new treatment made from this venom is expected to block the calcium channels of the nerves that transmit pain signals in the body. If the nerve channels are blocked and do not receive calcium, the pain signals would not be able to travel from a nerve cell to another and to the brain. In this way we will not feel pain any more.

The treatment based on synthetic venom will not be administered orally, but directly into the fluid around the spinal cord through a little pump. However, it may have side effects such as nausea, dizziness or blurred vision due to the fact that it is a very strong drug.

Scientists all over the world are considering the high beneficial effects they can obtain from various types of venom found in cone snails. They carry out researches in order to find compounds that will treat serious diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer or Parkinson's disease.

In this respect, Dr Jon-Paul Bingham, neuroscientist at the Clarkson University in New York, declared for BBC: "These snails are nature's pharmaceutical drug designers. And with Prialt we are really only touching the surface tip of the iceberg of what they can do. We estimate there are 75,000 compounds out there that could have some potential use in all kinds of applications."