Filipino Scientist Discovered PainKiller From Snails

Who would have thought that a killer snail can literally kill a pain? This is how Dr. Baldomera M. Olivera presented his new discovery, now commercially known as Prialt.

Dr. Baldomero Olivera

Prialt is taken from cone snail’s venom which contains conotoxins. Dr, Baldomera and his team from University of Utah found out that the cone of of venomous marine snails characterized several dozen neurotoxins. This neurotoxins are now widely used in neuroscience research.

In 1992, Olivera’s team identified the analgesic-like qualities of conopeptide from the cone’s snail. An active ingredient called Ziconotide was found and later was made available to the public with a trade name  Prialt.

One of the available pain killer prior to Prialt is morphine. However, morphine is narcotic – a habit-forming substance (addictive)  and Read the rest of this entry