venom, mimics a human hormone with a diverse set of biological functions. Though its biomedical potential is still untapped, the chemical has shown great promise as an analgesic in animal trials. If all goes well, it may one day provide an alternative to opiates for managing chronic pain.When Bea Ramiro, a PhD student and the principal investigator in the University of Copenhagen study, began the project, she was working on a hunch.
"Initially I thought the mice had just died," Ramiro says. "But they were still breathing. They were just completely unresponsive." Through a process called reversed-phase chromatography, the researchers identified a small fraction of the chemicals invenom that may be responsible for these effects in mice. Then, they followed a trail of genetic and chemical clues to identify the exacted compound in question. In the end, they isolated a peptide that they dubbed Consomatin Ro1.The mysterious Consomatin Ro1 is similar to somatostatin, a hormone that plays a central role in how we feel pain.
Consomatin Ro1 may also be more useful to pain relief than the hormone it mimics. While somatostatin regulates many biological functions through the manipulation of g-protein coupled receptors, the venom analog targets specific receptors thought to be associated with pain sensing.
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