Advertise With UsAdvertise on our extensive network of industry websites and newsletters.
Get the PBR newsletterSign up to our free email to get all the latest PBR
news.University of Utah researchers have isolated an unusual nerve toxin in an ocean-dwelling snail, and claim that its ability to bind onto the brain's nicotine receptors may be useful for designing new drugs to treat a variety of psychiatric and brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Subscribe to our email newsletter
The new toxin – named alpha conotoxin OmIA – has been isolated from a cone snail species named Conus omaria, which lives in the Pacific and Indian oceans and eats other snails. The discovery of the new cone snail toxin will be published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
“We discovered a new toxin from a venomous cone snail that may enable scientists to more effectively develop medications for a wide range of nervous system disorders including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, nicotine addiction and perhaps even schizophrenia,” said J Michael McIntosh, professor and research director of psychiatry at the university.
In 1979, Professor McIntosh discovered another ‘conotoxin’ that was developed into Prialt, a drug injected into fluid surrounding the spinal cord to treat severe pain due to cancer, AIDS, injury, failed back surgery and certain nervous system disorders. Prialt was approved in late 2004 in the US and was introduced in Europe in July.
Prialt, sold by Ireland’s Elan Pharmaceuticals, took roughly 25 years to reach the market after its discovery in venom from the fish-eating cone snail Conus magus, or magician’s cone. Professor McIntosh says that he expects it will take 10 to 20 years to develop new medications based on what has been learnt from the new toxin.