Peptides are chains of amino acids less than 200 units long. Above this we call such chains, proteins. Shellfish make complicated mixes of peptides to hunt prey. Humans bitten may die but feel no pain.
The odd behavior of cone shell toxin led some investigators to look for the active ingredient. Instead of one, they found as many as 200 peptides in toxin. The cone shell selects a mix in hunting prey. By stopping pain, the prey is less likely to move away from the phenomenally slow cone animal. This aspect. painless death, interested biochemists who sold the patent rights to an investigational drug company. The new drug Prialt is in phase III trials at the FDA.
There is some evidence Prialt will help neuropathic pain, but there is as yet no word on Central Pain, where as Marshall Devor has said, “All bets are off”. Many of the pain neurotransmitters are peptides as well, so it is not surprising that this group should contain chain sequences capable of altering pain. We sincerely hope some will be proven effective in CP.
This medicine is liable to be expensive. To collect the toxins, lab workers irritate the cone animal which extends a little tube to shoot venom. At the last minute, a test tube is placed in front of the tube, and voila! the venom is collected. Of perhaps 50,000 cones toxins in the world, only about 2000 have been studied. The shells of some of these creatures are currently in demand as collectors items, and the empty shells provide NO opportunity for researching toxins. They are a valuable resource and they should be studied.
This is a good reason to urge responsible management of offshore waters. Laws may be necessary to prevent the taking of cones for decoration or jewelry. The shells ARE beautiful, but the benefits of their venom may prove the most beautiful and valuable of all and we don’t even have to kill them.
It is a win-win situation and we are very grateful to the researchers who pursued this line of study. They don’t need our gratitude because they are now rich, but they have it just the same.
Red tide, an algae which comes seasonally to the tropics can actually cause temperature reversal so that cold things feel hot, due to nerve damage. This is called ciguatera poisoning. This neurologic phenomenon takes about five years to develop. Nerves can be damaged slowly. The ocean may yet yield up more mysteries.
We revert to our original contention that manufacturers of opiates be required to spend one percent of their profits on opioids within their own companies on basic pain research. If they do not do this, let us hope the farsighted cone toxin companies clean house with them. Pain research deserves more than a glance, more than a token effort. We are tired of the suffering and worn out from the struggle. We will be happy to make some executives rich, if they will just do their jobs and get busy studying the peptides which affect pain.
Greed may yet save us all. Yet, we must ask, why is the government not funding this research. If it works, they could pay off the national debt with it and get rid of addiction problems about which so much has been said of late, most of it hysterical,shallow baloney.
Oxycontin has been particularly lambasted. It is a long lasting oxycodone, a derivative of opium. The drug is not new, its time release coating is new. Why do we continue to spend billions to monitor this stuff when we could be studying cone toxins?
Is it just a misunderstanding, or are the drug companies afraid of anything new. Oxycontin should be monitored by a reliable doctor. Kids do not need this drug for fun. It should be restricted to those in serious pain. And there, the users should not be stigmatized. If they become dependent, this is not necessarily the same thing as addiction.
Addiction is only present if the person could not stop the drug with reasonable effort, it the pain went away. Data should have been gathered, but these kinds of studies are not available. A witch hunt against oxycontin can only hurt the sick in the long run. Why not relax what a doctor can give, but put it on a computer somewhere to make sure kids are not abusing it. If we know who is taking it and how much, and we know what the diagnosis is, maybe we can get a better idea about how big a problem pain is.
It is not for the minor pains. It is for the very sick. And it IS for the very sick, where we should be grateful if it helps. So far, oxycontin has not been shown to benefit CP, so we don’t really care, but we get nervous when there is a knee jerk reaction against pain relief. If the cone toxins work, we will be using them to regain our lives. Let us hope no “do-gooder” social critic attacks us, or the medication. They can show their concern for society best by pushing new and better pain drugs, so opium becomes obsolete. Less block, more tackle.
