The cone snail’s deadly venom could be the key to developing new drugs, including more effective pain relievers.
Despite being able to sting people to death, the cone snail has many interesting properties in medical research. In a new report on March 30, chemists and biochemists at Scotland’s University of Glasgow say a modified version of conotoxin, a powerful neurotoxic peptide in their venom, can used to block pain receptors in humans safely and effectively.
To better understand how cone snail venom affects human muscles, the team teamed up with machine learning and artificial intelligence experts at the UK’s University of Southampton, along with colleagues at the UK’s Southampton Laboratory. Defense Science and Technology Experiment, to investigate how conotoxin peptides are structured at the molecular level.
They will build on that knowledge to synthesize promising new peptides that interact with a type of receptor in the human nervous system, called nicotinic acetylcholine or nAChRs, and then use computer modeling techniques advanced to determine their effectiveness in binding to muscle receptors.
Cone snails sting by extending the proboscis, then launch a tree-like venomous tooth that rushes at the victim. Photo: University of Glasgow
“The ability of modified peptides to interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors may be the key to developing new forms of muscle relaxants for anesthesia, or analgesics with similar efficacy to opioids, but without the ability to It’s an exciting project and we’re very excited,” stressed Dr Andrew Jamieson from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, lead author of the study.
Cone snails are a group of venomous predatory sea snails, commonly found in warm seas around the world. They use conotoxins to paralyze their prey as well as their enemies by blocking connections in the nervous system.
Although rare, there have been documented cases of fatal cone snail stings worldwide. Currently, there is no conotoxin antitoxin, which means that severe cone snail stings cannot be treated effectively.
Jamieson also hopes that their project could lead to the development of the first treatments for conotoxin poisoning in the future.
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