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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

An unruly painkiller is tamed with inspiration from nature

Scientists borrow features of the body’s receptor for tetrodotoxin to create a useful synthetic structure.
Transmission electron micrograph of a section through a sciatic nerve.

The sciatic nerve (artificially coloured). A molecule that controls the release of the painkiller tetrodotoxin can have a long-lasting anaesthetic effect on the nerve. Credit: Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library

Tetrodotoxin is a powerful painkiller, but a non-toxic form offering extended pain relief has proved elusive. Now researchers have succeeded in delivering slow-release tetrodotoxin safely by imitating the body’s own receptor for the drug1.

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Nature 597, 450 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02514-6

References

  1. Ji, T. et al. Nature Biomed. Eng. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00793-y (2021).

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