If you get stuck under a large rock, the pain is unbearable. Not many people experience this, but there is a lot of chronic disease out there. With a lot of pain. Where are my painkillers?
The opioid crisis in the United States is a terrifying example of how wild and greedy people in a malfunctioning system take advantage of people’s pain. In Scioto County, Ohio, in 2010, 9.7 million pills were prescribed for a population of 80,000. That is 121 pills for every single inhabitant. From 1999 to 2019, nearly 500,000 people in the US died as a result of opioid overdoses.
A world of painkillers
A search on the “state of pain report global” shows an article from the American Journal of Public Health: Every year, 61 million people have 6 billion painful days due to bad health or illness. The real number is probably much higher.
Pedro Lima is a neurophysiologist and marine biologist (what a great combination). His aim is to eliminate the use of opiates for pain relief. He studies, among other things, invertebrates that are actually stuck under rocks. It must hurt, he thought, and found that they had developed a substance that blocks the nerve signals. Maybe this is a drug that can be extracted for pain relief?
Along the Algarve coast in Portugal, researchers at Sea4U, led by Lima, are looking for substances in small organisms that secrete substances to prevent and relieve pain. Among other things, they have found that fungi have substances that prevent pain signals from nerves to the brain.
Snails are also potential successors to opiates as painkillers. As early as 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Ziconotide for pain relief. It is originally extracted from the tropical sea snail Conus Magus. The liquid that this snail shoots out to paralyze fish, so that it can be eaten whole, has been broken down by scientists into small components, synthesized and turned into a medicine to relieve pain.
Billion dollar pain
The market for painkillers is reasonably large: last year it was $ 71.6 billion and is expected to be $ 72.5 billion this year.
I try to find out what other solutions researchers are looking at. Not much, really. Tetrodotoxin is a really strong substance in bullet fish that is mentioned as a candidate, but so far it does not seem to be approved.
Many medicines are emerging, though. Researchers are scanning tunics, sponges, snails, soft corals, fungi, algae, puffer fish and molluscs. They are looking for substances that can kill bacteria, fungal infections, curb inflammation, cure cancer, malaria, tuberculosis, diabetes, strengthen the immune system and protect nerves.
Health and the Oceans
Today, around 34,000 marine, natural products have been found that can be used for medicines, food and cosmetics. Of the eight that have already been developed for medical use, five of them are used to cancer treatment, such as the tunic in the picture below (Ecteinascidia turbinata). In addition, 28 others are being tested.
And already, 12,998 genetic sequences from marine species are patented. The chemical giant BASF, based in Germany, has patented 47 percent of these. For example, a genetic sequence from an algae is used to strengthen the canola oil from rapeseed oil, with omega-3 fatty acids.
Then the question is how the race for marine medicine is between rich and poor countries. We will probably get some answers when the UN agreement on the protection of biodiversity in the sea will be negotiated in August.
Also read: Corona medicines outside the Canary Islands?
Cover image: Our youngest kid underwater in Cuba. Very interested in maths and nature and he loves to swim. Maybe he’ll come up with something clever that we can extract from the oceans in a few years?
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