Scorpion Photograph By Shantanu Kuveskar; Wikimedia Commons
In the second of two blogs looking at future possibilities for pain relief we turn to a much- feared arthropod – scorpions!
A friend of mine coping with severe back pain, allodynia, high blood pressure and fibromyalgia happened to bump into a scorpion in a shower while down in Mexico. With her blood pressure skyrocketing (scorpion venom increases blood pressure), and her pain hurling towards a 9-10 on a 10 point scale, she considered curling up on the floor, and letting someone discover her body the next day. She picked herself up, though, went to a clinic and then took every pain and sleeping medication she could.
She woke up the next day exhausted with a huge surprise; the worst pain she dealt with on a day to day basis, the pain she had no answer to – the allodynia stretching down the top of her right thigh – was significantly reduced. (Allodynia is a condition in which even the slightest touch of a fabric on the skin can cause pain.)
Over time the pain did come back but it took awhile and some digging suggested her surprising pain relief was no accident. If an Israeli researcher has his way, it may not take a scorpion bite to ease intractable nerve pain in the future.
Dr. Michael Gurevitz of Tel Aviv University is determined to find a way to turn a scorpion’s sting into a balm for pain sufferers. Remarkably, the same bite that causes pain, irritability, hyperthermia, vomiting, profuse salivation, tremor, and convulsion and sometimes even organ damage and death could hold the key to pain reduction.
Bioengineered scorpion toxins have been monumental to the evolution of channel science, and are now serving as templates for the development of invaluable experimental molecular therapeutics. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23202307
The key to that, Gurevitz, a much published researchers on scorpion toxins, believes, lies in the scorpion venom’s ability to impact the ion channels in the body. It turns out that scorpion venom is exquisitely focused on the ion channels; in fact, scorpion venom based probes have played a critical role in elucidating sodium, calcium and potassium channel structure. (Check out a 75-page review paper on scorpion venom and potassium channels for some good late-night reading.)
Sodium ion channels are Gurevitz’s target. Of the nine sodium channels in the body, two (Nav 1.7, 1.8) are responsible for delivering pain signals to the brain. These channels, found in both the central nervous system and in the small diameter neurons (remember small fiber neuropathy?) found in the dorsal root ganglia in the body could hold the key to the problem of pain sensitization.
The Dorsal Root Ganglia – the Key to Chronic Pain?
A recent Martinez-Lavin study that directly implicates mutated sodium channels in the dorsal ganglia with severe pain in fibromyalgia suggests Gurevitz is on the right track. Martinez-Lavin believes sodium channels on the dorsal root ganglia hold the key to FM, and we’ll explore his theory more later.
Several theories suggest dorsal ganglia dysfunction plays a role in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
The nodules of the dorsal root ganglia, which lie alongside the spinal cord, contain cell bodies whose small nerve fibers (dendrites) extend to the skin, muscles, tendons and joints. Sodium channels in these ganglia are both pain and autonomic nervous system ‘gatekeepers’, and sodium channelopathies are associated with several painful disorders including erythromelalgia. One mutation appears to increase ‘pain perception’ by causing the DRG neurons to become ‘hyperexcitable’.
Dorsal root ganglia ‘hyper-excitability’, Martinez-Lavin believes, is causing the pain in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. They are the place where physical, emotional, or infective stimuli are translated into chronic pain in fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and similar disorders.
(The dorsal root ganglia, which gather the sensory data from the body before it gets to the spinal, are also a prime target for the herpesviruses that may be operative in ME/CFS and FM. Shapiro proposes herpesvirus infection of the dorsal root ganglia causes chronic fatigue syndrome.)
Ion channelopathies have been proposed in chronic fatigue syndrome with the ciguatera toxin able to cause many symptoms similar to both ME/CFS and FM.
“If we figure this out, we may be able to slightly modify such toxins, making them more potent and specific for certain pain mediating sodium channels,” Prof. Gurevitz.
Gurevitch believe that finding the right scorpion venom peptide (from hundreds), and then tweaking it to turn those sodium channels off may spell safe effective pain relief. Since the drug would mimic a naturally occurring substance that simply washes out of the body it should be safe. Because it would stop over-active sodium channels from sending pain signals to the brain there would be no need to bludgeon the opioid receptors in the central nervous system to reduce the perception of pain.
Gurevtiz’s Israeli team is reportedly now developing scorpion-based compounds to combat pain. A drug is still a ways off. First comes the drug itself, then the animal studies and finally the human trials. The approach, if successful, though, could potentially spell relief for many with intractable pain problems.
Interesting!
I just had a friend clue me in to something he’s been looking into in regard to the dorsal root ganglion and immunoglobulinfree light chains, mast cells and a connection to autoimmune problems. Others are connecting these issues to not only pain, but maybe our connections with autoimmune, POTS and MCAS.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19232443
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24051200
Many of us have suspected issues with the sodium channels. But some of the other ion channels can be at play too. (This explains ion channels and how they work.)
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/ion-channels-and-excitable-cells-14406097
Wiki also has a good write-up about ion channels, if you want to learn a little more detail about the different channels and how they function.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_channel
Issie
Thanks Issie
Lots of interest in the DRG’s….I look forward to learning more about them.
I am so impressed with the medical knowledge and understanding of this blog and it’s readers. I wish I had that sharpness, but I still appreciate having a general overview of what’s happening in research. Has anyone tried marijuana?
I’ve tried medical marijuana. I haven’t used it regularly but it works quite well for me for pain and sleep.
Thanks Cort. I talked to one of the brothers who were a part of Sanjay Gupta’s special “Weed.” He has a store here in the Springs and thought a combination of strains would work best.
Cort, great article, as always, but a couple of small nitpicks: in the teaser and in the article, “Israeli” is spelled wrong once each place.
Whoops. Thanks I fixed the one in the blog…
(1) There has been quite a bit of interest in conotoxin . . . toxin from the cone snail. Deadliest venom in the world? Cone snails are something that swimmers, surfers, divers are warned about offshore of Australia (and probably other places). Same concept as scorpion venom, perhaps?
(2) I remember the story of a woman who was from England but living in Egypt at the time. She had M.S. and therefore pain, stiffness, spasticity — whatever symptoms are similar to CFS. She tried “snake oil” but it was the real thing. A tiny bit of cobra venom in “black seed oil.” Black seed oil is from black cumin; very well thought of in the herbal community.
The snake oil worked amazingly well. But because she had very little money, she couldn’t continue. The next time she tried just the black seed oil — not particularly helpful.
Perhaps the cobra venom effect was in the same ballpark as scorpion and cone snail? There are a whole variety of enzymes, each one specific to some snake or adder or whatnot.
Those enzymes have “lysin” in their name — ophiolysin (king cobra), horrilysin (timber rattlesnake), trimerelysin (habu snake) and so on.
They all have at least one thing in common. They all require zinc as a co-factor. So one has to wonder, is there any traction to be gained from knowing about this co-factor requirement?
Excellent article.
A few years ago I read about some Australians working on a pain cure derived from sea snails or some similar sea creature. Don’t know what became of that.
Yes, forgot about that one. It is the New Zealand green lipped mussels. Here’s a link about it:
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Green-lipped-mussels-may-trump-fish-oil-for-joint-health-benefits-Study
Issie
http://news.discovery.com/human/snail-venom-painkiller.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19044-sea-snail-venom-provides-potent-pain-relief.html#.UmJBFOHn_IU
There was the study on the cone sea snail.
Issie
Thank you for more interesting knowledge. Channels are my favorite topic. Please, let me draw your attention to this thorough report about channels:
“Channelopathies, receptor and solute carrier disorders in neurology
Autoantibodies and biomarkers of neurological disorders” By Finn E. Somnier, M.D., D.Sc. (Med.)
http://www.ssi.dk/Diagnostik/DiagnostiskHaandbog/400-499/~/media/Indhold/DK%20-%20dansk/Diagnostik/DiagnostiskHaandbog/Channelopathies%20in%20neurology%20-%20version%202.ashx
COOL! A little “light” 🙂 reading. I’m looking forward to reading it. I’m interested in genes and epigenetics too. I think if something can get “turned on” – we could possible turn it back off with the right direction. Be it with our diets, supplements, medicines etc. I also believe that we can avoid having a gene mutate and “turn on” by addressing our diet and lifestyle. Just because we have inherited the gene – doesn’t mean it will activate. (For example – you may have inherited the gene for Alzheimers and may have family members with it. Doesn’t mean you will get it. But, does mean you are predisposed to it and if you know that, you should take steps to avoid activation of that gene. Same with cancer and some other illnesses. Lifestyle choices make a difference.)
Thanks for the link!
Issie
Thank you for more interesting knowledge. Channels are my favorite topic. Please, let me draw your attention to this thorough report about channels:
“Channelopathies, receptor and solute carrier disorders in neurology Autoantibodies and biomarkers of neurological disorders” By Finn E. Somnier, M.D., D.Sc. (Med.)
http://www.ssi.dk/Diagnostik/DiagnostiskHaandbog/400-499/~/media/Indhold/DK%20-%20dansk/Diagnostik/DiagnostiskHaandbog/Channelopathies%20in%20neurology%20-%20version%202.ashx
Thanks Helle…
Thanks for another interesting blog Cort. Somehow, I’m not surprised about the Scorpion venom nor that of snails, worms, bees, snakes, etc. Many, many years ago, I gave myself cobra venom injections, three times a day, for almost a year. It helped some but not enough to continue the injections over a longer period of time. My recollection from researching it at the time is that the cobra venom therapy was developed at the height of the polio epidemic for treatment of some polio patients.
A few years later, after spending a week at American Biologics, I took a combination of snake venom injections for a short period of time. I think that combination might have consisted of Krait, Cobra, and Water Moccasin venom but I can’t remember for sure. Whatever it was, I couldn’t tolerate it for long because my arm swelled up too much.
Have I missed an article about Cannabis oil ? If so please direct me to one,I have been reading about THC & CBD sounds good if you can get the right dosage!
I haven’t gotten it out but it’s on the list. It’ll probably be out around the first of the year actually.
Mutations in Nav1.9 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Found in Inherited Pain Condition
http://www.painresearchforum.org/news/33489-mutations-nav19-voltage-gated-sodium-channel-found-inherited-pain-condition