As anyone who has ever had any kind of surgery can tell you, morphine is the greatest thing ever discovered by humans. Of course, its pain-relieving qualities come with the nasty side effect of addiction for those who use too much of the substance, but as a pain reliever goes, it’s pretty tough to top. However, researchers at Israel’s Tel Aviv University might have discovered a replacement from the strangest source: scorpion venom. Apparently, the toxins in scorpion venom interact with the body’s pain receptors in a manner similar to morphine.
Of course, the scorpion venom has its own problems, namely in the fact that it could kill you. Then again, so could morphine, so… it’s kind of a catch 22. However, treating the venom is much easier than treating morphine addiction, and scientists can extract the good traits of the venom and not the fatal ones.
“The mammalian body has nine different sodium channels of which only a certain subtype delivers pain to our brain,” lead researcher Michael Gurevitz said in a statement. “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.”
Tags: pain killers, replacements for morphine, scorpion venom, unusual medical news, weird science, scorpion venom replaces morphine, Michael Gurevitz, Tel Aviv University, yellow scorpion, unusual animals