New Analgesic Developed Using a Deadly Toxin
Harvard: a new painkiller built from pufferfish toxin (tetrodotoxin) paired with a biodegradable polymer blocks nerves for up to three days without causing dependence.
Harvard: a new painkiller built from pufferfish toxin (tetrodotoxin) paired with a biodegradable polymer blocks nerves for up to three days without causing dependence.
Harvard Medical School has unveiled a new analgesic based on the toxin of the fish used to prepare fugu. The fish belongs to the puffer family, which contains the powerful poison tetrodotoxin. The compound has already been successfully tested in rodents. It performed excellently and produced no dependence, unlike opioid painkillers.
Tetrodotoxin is one of the most potent neuroparalytic poisons. As little as 1–2 milligrams is enough to kill an adult. Poisoning develops rapidly: the person first feels numbness in the mouth, followed by paralysis of the respiratory organs and death.
In its effects, tetrodotoxin is largely similar to opioids — it also blocks ion channels in the membranes of nerve and muscle cells, thereby halting the transmission of nerve signals and causing muscular paralysis. The researchers worked out how to deliver tetrodotoxin slowly and in small doses. They bound the toxin to a biodegradable polymer. The pair was supplemented with an enhancer — a compound that makes nerve tissue more permeable, allowing even less tetrodotoxin to be used.
Natural metabolic processes gradually break down the polymer after administration. A small amount of the toxin is released, producing nerve blockade for up to three days with minimal local or systemic toxicity and no visible signs of tissue damage.
Book a visit — we will pick a convenient time.