Amber Monarch
Professor Yeater
Introduction to College Writing
5 March 2015
Venomous Painkillers

Pain, it’s one of those things that everyone experiences at some point of their life whether it’s physical or mental. Chronic pain is now becoming one of the major problems among the human race. Quality of life of those with chronic pain has been drastically decreasing within the last 50 years. In the world of medicine we are always finding new ways to improve on medications, and techniques and many other things. As scientists we use the world to provide us the resources to make these improvements possible. In an article “Spider Venom May Hold Chemical Keys to New Painkillers” written by Kate Kelland it talks about how they have identified several compounds within spider venom that can block steps in which the body uses pain signals to the brain.
With the research they have tested numerous venous spiders. In the venom they are looking for the compounds/molecules that can block nerve activity. One in particular they are looking for, called Nav1.7, a sodium ion channel that is and is usually expressed at high levels of two types of neurons. Nav1.7 plays a key role in spinal cord nociceptive and pruriceptive synaptic transmission. The antibody for this plays a role in reducing pain and itchiness. (Kelland)
Chronic pain has increased and so has the costs. Statistics show that one in five people suffer from chronic pain. With this most of the pain killers, they often don’t give the results that people are looking for and or long-term relief. Chronic pain has honestly become a burden and costing the United States billions of dollars a year. (Kelland)
This new research has led to studying species of spiders that use their venom to kill their prey. In estimate there are millions of venom peptides and yet only 0.01 percent of them have been explored. From the experiment they rapidly analyzed the compound of the venom from 206 spiders. 40 percent of these spiders contained at least one compound that can block the Nav1.7 channel. They have found 7 compounds in the venom. The researchers have identified one compound that has the right structure and potency that can be the start in the making of new pain killers. It has also been stated that the spider venom may be able to help cure diseases like muscular dystrophy (the weakness and sometimes the loss of muscle mass and can put a damer on locomotion skills) and many others. (Kelland)
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