Crab spider venom helped create a promising painkiller

A Russian company has completed preclinical trials of an innovative painkiller based on a substance derived from the venom of the spider Thomisus onustus. The new drug is called purotoxin-6. The estimated market launch date is 2029, with potential coverage of more than 8 million patients with neuropathic pain, the developers said.

The principle of action of the substance is to inhibit special pain receptors (P2X3). They play a key role in causing pain in conditions such as osteoarthritis, cystitis, trigeminal neuralgia, migraines, and chronic cough.

According to the developers, currently there is only one drug that affects P2X3 receptors, which is registered in the European Union (EU), Switzerland and Japan. However, this drug has a side effect, which is expressed in a disorder of taste sensations (dysgeusia).

"Natural poisons are unique combinatorial libraries of pharmacologically active substances targeting neuroreceptors. They resemble the artificial libraries that pharmaceutical companies use when searching for new drugs. Our peptide exhibits exceptional selectivity for P2X3 receptors and acts effectively on them," said Alexander Vasilevsky, founder of the Skolkovo resident company Analgesics of the Future, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences and head of research.

The effectiveness of the drug has been tested in numerous trials: on isolated sensory neurons in the laboratory, on recombinant receptors, as well as using genetically modified or knockout mice.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Spider approach: arthropod venom helped create a promising painkiller