Venom from tarantulas might be the secret to helping those suffering from chronic pain.
A team of 20 researchers at the University of California, Davis, received $1.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to study the efficacy of tarantula venom to reduce pain as part of its Helping to End Addiction Long-Term Initiative, the university announced Wednesday.
“The same venoms that can cause pain and neurological dysfunction can also help nerves work better and reduce pain,” said Bruce Hammock, a professor of entomology and nematology at the university, in a release.
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Over-the-counter medications, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, are not strong enough to relieve chronic pain, and more powerful opioid medications can cause addiction, according to Heike Wulff, a professor of pharmacology, so the venom studies could provide a breakthrough in treatment if they are successful.
The venom from the Peruvian green velvet tarantula can block the Nav1.7 sodium channel, which is responsible for transmitting pain signals from neurons to the brain, potentially relieving sufferers.
“The promise of a Nav1.7 inhibitor is that we would have something that is as effective as an opioid but not addictive,” Wulff said.
A person bitten by a Peruvian green velvet tarantula can suffer from serious symptoms due to the venom’s blocking of protein channels that work in the muscles and brain, so scientists are attempting to “toxineer” the venom, engineering it to block only sensory pain signals.
The main tool in their experiments is a computer platform called “Rosetta” in which they can digitally create varieties of the target protein in the venom and produce it in the lab.
“Using the Rosetta software, we can take a natural peptide [small protein] and then redesign it and make it into a therapeutic,” said Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy, a physiology professor who leads the team with Wulff.
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Once the proteins are synthesized, they will be produced into therapeutics and tested in animals. The medication will be brought to market in no less than five years.
