Researchers may have found an unconventional treatment for an uncomfortable illness.
The international team of scientists used spider venom to identify a specific protein involved in causing chronic pain for patients suffering from irritable bowel disease (IBD), according to an announcement issued by the University of Adelaide.
Symptoms of IBD include diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain. Individuals dealing with this disease could control it by managing triggers related to diet or stress, but there’s no dedicated therapy on the market geared towards alleviating chronic pain.
The team’s experiment began by collecting more than 100 samples of poison from different centipede, scorpion, and spider species. Next, the toxins were added to sensory neurons isolated from rats and mice that were preserved in petri dishes. Calcium imaging, a technique used to investigate the roles certain calcium ions play in neurons, was used to analyze which venoms elicited the best reactions.
Venom taken from the Togo Starburst Tarantula, an arachnid native to West Africa, yielded the strongest results, wrote The Guardian.
A poison-induced response was activated in the Nav1.1 ion channel, which has been previously liked to epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Further research also revealed that Nav1.1 was found in the pain-sensing nerves in the gut of these test subjects suggesting this ion channel does play a role in producing this discomfort.
“Spiders make toxins to kill prey and defend themselves against predators, and the most effective way to defend against a predator is to make them feel excruciating pain,” Said one of the study’s lead authors, Professor Glenn King, Ph.D., in a statement.
“Spider venom should therefore be full of molecules that stimulate the pain-sensing nerves in our body, allowing us to discover new pain pathways by examining which nerves are activated when exposed to spider toxins,” he added.
The team is currently developing experimental molecules that could block this ion channel. The study is published in the journal Nature.
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
