The search is on throughout the scientific community for new medications for every known disease.  Cancer and heart research are often the glamour areas, now a new pain medicine may be on the horizon.  Centipede venom has been found on an experimental basis to be a powerful pain killer in mice.  It is a toxin that acts on a protein that influences pain sensation.  Mice that are given an injection of the purified venom can withstand a significant increase in pain.

The Goal of Research

The goal of research is to find a chemical that helps with pain but does not have the side effects of current strong pain medications like opioids/narcotics.  Morphine and similar compounds have many side effects and are addictive with high potential for abuse and overdose.  The goal of new compounds is to minimize the bad parts and control pain better.  In mice, the new centipede venom appears to be very effective in pain control.

Unfortunately, this is just the first step to determine if centipede venom will be useful in humans.  Once a compound is found to be useful, the next step is to determine if it will be useful in mammals and then humans begins.  Chemicals that work in mice do not necessarily work in humans.

Further Questions & Testing

Then there are the questions of whether the drug causes other problems, and what dose is safe and effective and for how long.  Another issue is how the compound must be delivered to the body to be effective. One of the recent medications, snail venom (ziconotide) is only effective if given to the spinal fluid, which makes this drug very difficult to use.  Many compounds cannot be taken orally because the stomach is highly acidic and often will destroy drugs. For a pain medication that is useful, an easy delivery system is essential for every day use.

Research goes on daily to find new medications that help improve our lives.  As we live longer, pain is becoming a common problem that most people have to confront. Hopefully, science will find new and effective drugs to take care of pain.