spider venom pain Archives - Minnesota Physical Medicine Blog

Researchers are always seeking new compounds to study, especially compounds that can assist in the field of pain management. Venom from many insects are potential targets for study. Two have recently been found to have properties that may be able to be developed into treatments for pain. One is from the green velvet tarantula spiders in Peru, which produce the toxic peptide Pro Tx-11 that inhibits sodium channels on membranes. The other is diluted bee venom, which has potential options in the area of neuropathic pain.

Spider and Bee Benefits

Tarantula venom contains Pro Tx-11 peptide that binds to the pain receptor within the membrane of neuronal cells. The exact receptor on the membrane that the toxic peptide binds to and how it works is still unknown. The research is being done in Australia. At this time, it has potential to be a non-addictive painkiller. This compound is in the early phases of study, and it is likely to be 10 years before we have a chance of seeing this clinically.

Bee venom has been used in traditional Eastern medicine. In acupuncture, bee venom has been used for treatment of chronic pain. Research in rodents has shown diluted bee venom that could block certain types of pain. The models studied so far are neuropathic pain from spinal cord injury (SCI). Acupuncture treatment with bee venom affected glia, astrocyte, and microglia activation. The effect of the bee venom was a reduced amount of neuropathic pain in the rodents, but isolation of the exact compound that is helpful in bee venom is not clear. Further study is necessary to even determine if there is an actual compound that may be developed into a treatment for pain.

Plant and animal toxins often affect the nervous system as their mechanism of action on humans. Since they have interactions with the nerves already, they have become natural compounds to examine in the search for novel approaches to treat pain. Many of the compounds are quite complex and often not well understood. They have become natural targets to examine further. Hopefully as research progresses over time, better understanding of pain will happen and new nonaddictive compounds will be found to treat pain.

We spoke briefly in the past about how researchers are looking at spiders as a potential source of relief for patients battling chronic pain, and new research suggests that a tarantula may hold some answers.

According to researchers in Australia, the Peruvian Green Velvet Tarantula, native to South America, may help advance our knowledge of chronic pain reception and expression. A bite from the spider isn’t deadly enough to kill, and in fact, it may have some benefits. Researchers say the venom actually helps to inhibit pain receptors in the body.

“Our group is specifically interested in understanding the mode of action of this toxin to gain information that can guide us in the design and optimization of novel pain therapeutics,” said Sónia Troeira Henriques, senior research officer at the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

The peptide toxin, referred to simply as ProTx-II, works to block pain signals by binding to the membranes of nerve cells.

“Our results show that the cell membrane plays an important role in the ability of ProTx-II to inhibit the pain receptor,” said Henriques. “In particular, the neuronal cell membranes attract the peptide to the neurons, increase its concentration close to the pain receptors, and lock the peptide in the right orientation to maximize its interaction with the target.”

Venom and Chronic Pain

Based on the new findings, researchers are hoping to mimic the effects of the venom in drug form. They see at as a new avenue in the pursuit of pain management.

“Our work creates an opportunity to explore the importance of the cell membrane in the activity of peptide toxins that target other voltage-gated ion channels involved in important disorders,” said Henriques.

The Australian team isn’t the only one studying the role of venom in chronic pain management. Researchers out of Germany are exploring the benefits of snail venom in pain control, citing an added benefit that the venom decomposes quickly and thus is less likely to lead to dependency and abuse. That research is farther along, as a drug has already been created using the snail venom. The drug is called Prialt, and it is being used as a spinal pain injection to treat pain from failed surgery, cancer and AIDS.