A new and novel pain relief drug?

I'm among the many people condemned to daily use of pain-killing drugs to control the remaining symptoms of a nerve injury. It's often very hard to find a balance between retaining one's mental faculties, and being dosed so heavily that one's no longer quite oneself any more. I prefer to operate on the more-pain, less-drugs end of the spectrum, as I hate the 'zonked' feeling that too many painkillers give me; but I can understand those who choose to tolerate the latter, rather than be subjected to never-ending, unendurable pain.

I'm therefore intensely interested in research in this field. My eye was caught by a report in the Daily Mail last week.

Scientists have developed a new pain-relief pill from a chemical used by sea snails to catch their prey.

It was found to be as effective as morphine for relieving the most severe forms of pain but without the added risk of addiction.

Marine cone snails produce a saliva that contains a deadly dose of peptide toxins to help the slow-moving creatures catch prey. They inject passing victims with needle-like teeth that shoot out of their mouths.

Conus Victoriae (the cone snail species used in the research)

Scientists have already transformed one of the chemicals into a pain-reliever for humans. However, it has to be injected directly into the spinal cord which limits how much it can be used.

Now researchers in Australia, led by David Craik of the University of Queensland, have developed a form of the painkiller that can be taken orally.

The modified chemical was found to reduce severe pain in rats at a much lower dose than existing medications, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News.

. . .

The drug could potentially revolutionise the treatment of the most severe forms of pain and Professor Craik is keen to take his research further.

'The most challenging aspect has been just raising the money to get it commercialised,' he told Chemical & Engineering News.

There's more at the link.

Intrigued, I went to the source article (mentioned by the Daily Mail) in the Chemical & Engineering News. There, amongst the scientific language, I read this:

In tests with rats, the cyclized peptide proved to be as potent a painkiller as gabapentin, the most popular drug for neuropathic pain, even though the conotoxin-based peptide was administered at a dose that is less than 1% of the dose typically given for gabapentin.

“For years people have been saying that peptides make fantastic drug leads because they’re very potent,” Craik explains. “The problem is that they’re generally regarded as poor drugs because they’re not stable and they’re not orally available, so the pharmaceutical industry has kind of shied away from peptides in the past.”

There are, in fact, very few peptide drugs that can be taken orally. The immunosuppressant cyclosporine, a cyclic peptide made of 11 amino acids, is one example, but it’s relatively small compared with most potential protein therapeutics.

Craik’s group has shown that cyclizing larger peptides can make them orally available.

Again, there's more at the link.

That's wonderful news for me, because Gabapentin is the narcotic prescribed for my nerve damage. If this new drug can produce similar or better results at minimal dosages, with minimal side-effects, I - and many other people in my position - will be lining up for it, yesterday if not sooner! Here's hoping . . .

Peter