Weird Pain From Baboon Spiders
Baboon spiders are a group of tarantulas from Africa that are shy by nature and spend most of their time hiding in the ground. However, baboon spiders are not easy to mess with. Once an intruder dares to provoke them, they will attack them in groups, bite their opponents and inject venom, making the intruders regret it. Although the venom of baboon spiders is not particularly harmful to humans, if bitten by it, the wound will feel severe pain, and the injured person will feel nausea and weakness for a long time.
Why is the venom of baboon spiders so powerful? Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia found that this is because the venom of baboon spiders can cause a double attack on the injured person, increasing the pain sensitivity of the attacked subject while firing the toxin protein. Pain originates from electrical signals sent by neuronal cells from the body to the brain. Sodium ions enter cells through tiny channels on the surface of neurons, activate neurons, and transmit pain information. In response, neurons release potassium ions outward to maintain the balance of charge inside and outside the cell, thereby calming excited neurons and pain relief. . However, the venom of baboon spiders contains a polypeptide called Pm1a, which opens the victim's sodium ion channels and closes the potassium ion channels at the same time, so the victim will continue to feel pain.
Interestingly, the mechanism that makes people feel pain coincides with a common physiological mechanism of pain in the human body, that is, chronic pain. Chronic pain refers to persistent or intermittent pain for more than 3 months, usually caused by various diseases, trauma or surgery. At present, there are at least 100 million chronic pain patients in China. Why does chronic pain afflict patients for so long? One reason for this is damage to the patient's nervous system, specifically the loss of control of their sodium-potassium ion channels, so that the pain persists -- consistent with the effects of baboon spider venom. From this, the researchers could not help but think that the pain-causing mechanisms of the two are so similar. Could spider toxins also play some role in relieving pain?
Pain relief with spider venom
It may seem whimsical to think that the baboon spider's toxin can cause pain in the opposite way to the pain-relieving effect we expect. Scientists can, however, modify the baboon spider's toxin for pain relief.
There have been some successful experiences before. Not long ago, scientists improved the pain-relieving effect of spider toxins by modifying the structure. Scientists in Australia have created a database of venom molecules – which contains 650 venom molecules produced by venomous organisms around the world, including spider toxins, snake toxins, scorpion toxins and more. Scientists screen these venom samples to locate molecules that have specific effects on the vertebrate nervous system, and then use those molecules to develop therapeutics.
What should be modified to look like baboon spider toxins can also be inspired by other research results. Australian researchers have discovered a molecule called Tsp1a in the venom of Peruvian tarantulas that blocks sodium channel activity well. They tested the molecule's pain-relieving effects in mice with inflammatory bowel syndrome, which can cause chronic pain in the gut for which there is currently no effective treatment. The experimental results show that the analgesic effect of Tsp1a molecule is very significant. What's more, the Tsp1a molecule appears to be highly selective and does not negatively affect other body functions.
Imagine if we had a drug that blocked sodium channels and opened potassium channels, how superior its pain relief would be. Perhaps in the near future, we will have access to such a pain reliever.
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