There are millions of different organisms living in the depths of the ocean each with different life styles, structures, adaptations and ways of hunting. It is certain that one of the most interesting and dangerous of these organisms are the killer cone snails which look harmless at first but can become a death machine in just a few seconds. The cone snails have one of the most toxic poisons in the world, even two drops are enough to kill a human in just a few minutes. Despite the fact that snails are one of the slowest animals, cone snails are known as the fastest killer animal in the world. What are the features that make cone snails the most dangerous snail species in the 40,000 species of the snails? You will discover the world of cone …show more content…
They are small molecules made up of between 8 and 32 amino acids. They are often referred to as mini-proteins. Their job is to stop the communication between the nerve cells causing paralysis within seconds and eventually causes death. They can target other ion channels, such as those for sodium and potassium, or receptors and transporters for neurotransmitters such as glutamate, serotonin, neurotensin and noradrenaline. It is believed that more than 50,000 conotoxins exists. There has been a lot of research about the venom toxin and it is found that it has a very complex structure with at least 50 different chemicals which target the brain and nervous system. The diversity of the toxins make it harder to isolate a specific chemical to work …show more content…
But should we think that conotoxins are something that is only harmful for humans? Apparently the answer is no! There are several researches about turning this killer toxins into something useful for humans, such as a painkiller which will prevent the pain signals to reach the channels. Ziconotide is the first painkiller based on the cone snail toxins but the conotoxins are broken down by the body's enzymes and therefore cannot be taken orally which makes it harder to administer as a painkiller. The problem with making a conotoxin-inspired painkiller in tablet form is making the peptides stable enough so they don’t break down in the stomach before reaching their target. The painkilling structure is not yet tried on humans but the modified peptides tried on rats appeared to reduce pain response significantly in rats even when given in very small doses. It is estimated that its effect is 100 times larger than morphine or gabaentin, the benchmark pain relief drugs. But the side effects are not known yet and scientist are still trying to find out how the use of conotoxins on humans as a pain killer can be