SNAIL venom powerful enough to kill people is the unlikely source of a potential new painkiller.
Bruce Livett and his team at the University of Melbourne derived the painkiller from a cone shell native to the Great Barrier Reef, which uses the venom to paralyse its prey. At a meeting last week in Cairns, Queensland, Livett reported that the substance, code-named ACV1, was a more effective painkiller in rats than morphine, but wasn’t addictive.
Other painkillers have been derived from cone shells. Omega-conotoxin, for example, is undergoing clinical trials in the US. Livett says he’s hopeful ACV1 won’t have the…
