Long lasting pain reliever found in Carribean sea snail venom

It turns out the venom found in the Conus regius sea snail, which is common in the Caribbean Sea, contains a compound that can give pain sufferers some ease.

The poison contained in the snail’s venom is normally used to immobilize the snail’s prey. The compound was named Rg1A.

The revelation of pain relief was discovered when the venom was injected into laboratory rats. It was found to continue to stop pain three days after administered. “We found that the compound was still working 72 hours after the injection, still preventing pain,” Professor of Psychiatry, J Michael McIntosh explained.

One group of rats were treated with conventional chemotherapy while another group were given the venom; the rats given the venom felt no pain over a considerable amount of time.

A research team from the University of Utah made the findings.  In turn, the revelation was acknowledged in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research team further explained that the venom could replace the use of narcotics such as opioids which are highly addictive.