Comments on: Painkilling chemicals with no side effects found in black mamba venom

By: Frank W.

Frank W. — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 22:57:53 +0000

One of the worst side effects of the powerful painkillers is addiction. The can’t live with it, can’t live without it dilemma. A painkiller minus addictive qualities would find a ready market without a doubt but the real trick is to find one that also carries no long term cryptic organ damage or cancer
potentials. I dream of the day when I can walk away from it all, medical dependency or not, still I would volunteer, risks included, if it would speed up the development of such a medicine. The world needs two things, more compassion and a harmless and cheap non-addictive painkiller.!

By: Duyushan

Duyushan — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 02:41:54 +0000

I just want to second Thorsten

“Facinating and amazing that a snake venom can hold clues to effective pain killers. But also really sad that patents can be obtained not from invention, but from discovery – so wrong.”

By: Mephane

Mephane — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 08:22:03 +0000

Now it would be interesting to find out whether these mambalgines provide an actual evolutionary advantage to the snake, and if so whether it is related to the painkilling or instead some other, potentially yet undiscovered side-effect; for example, it might be something that only occurs in specific animals which are the typical prey of black mambas.

By: ABts

ABts — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:27:51 +0000

Maija, I agree, but it could still show promise with further testing and different formulations. As a migraine sufferer who hates the triptans almost as much as the headaches, I say keep going!

By: another anonymous person

another anonymous person — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:59:24 +0000

See also, for example, the work of the Olivera Laboratory (University of Utah) on conotoxins and other snail venoms, or David Craik (University of Queensland) on cyclic peptides derived from venoms. Olivera in particular has a very compelling lecture on the discovery (by an undergraduate in his laboratory) of a particular component of the venom of predatory cone snails that is now used clinically to treat pain that is resistant to other drugs.

There is a lot of good peptide chemistry in venoms!

By: Maija Haavisto

Maija Haavisto — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:21:55 +0000

Very far-fetched to say that the painkillers have “no side effects” just because they lack any obvious toxicity.

By: Thorsten

Thorsten — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:21:16 +0000

Facinating and amazing that a snake venom can hold clues to effective pain killers. But also really sad that patents can be obtained not from invention, but from discovery – so wrong.