Venomous Marine Snail Source of New Pain Drug

[Guest guest]

Marine Snail Source of New Pain Drug

The deadly marine cone snail, which uses venom to

paralyze its prey, may find a place in pain

management. Elan Corporation, a pharmaceutical

company based in Dublin, Ireland, has isolated a

peptide from the snail's venom, called ziconotide, and

found that it can relieve severe pain in cancer

patients without affecting other nerves and without

numbing.

Ziconotide represents a new class of pain management

drugs. Results from a double-blind study of 108

cancer and AIDS patients found that the drug relieved

severe pain, especially in the cancer patients. It

worked equally well in patients who had been

previously treated with morphine. Age and gender made

no difference in how patients responded to ziconotide.

Administered via a catheter directly into the spinal

fluid, the drug works in the areas of the spinal

column which have many receptors for morphine and

other opiates. It is a calcium channel-blocker that

only appears to affect neurons which transmit pain

signals to the brain. The drug has no effect on other

types of nerves.

See the news report at:

http://www.medscape.com/MedscapeWire/2001/05/medwire.0516.Venom.html

__________________________________________________