Health & Medicine
Tropical Fish With Venomous Bite Could Provide New Painkillers
Brooke James
First Posted: Mar 31, 2017 04:20 AM EDT
In the Pacific region are small, fanged fishes with rather menacing bites. Fang blennies, as they are known, are only a few inches long with bright colors and large lower canines.
According to The New York Times, when a predator has a fang blenny in its mouth, it is said to experience a "violent quivering of the head," which would cause the predator to open its jaws and gills, helping the blenny escape, unscathed. This unusual defense mechanism comes from the fact that unlike other fish species that injects toxins through their fins, blennies have venoms through their fangs -- making their bite rather deadly. What makes them especially dangerous is the fact that their venom does not inject pain for their predators, but rather, it causes a sudden drop in blood pressure, which stupefies.
Live Science noted that the fang blenny venom would not be very painful, but it will be unpleasant enough, at least for fish predators. Nicholas Casewell, a lecturer at the Liverpool School of Topical Medicine and an author of the study, shared that out of 100 species, only about 30 kinds of blennies are venomous.
In analyzing the venom extracted from one of these species, scientists were able to identify three types of toxins. These include an enzyme, a molecule used for neuron signaling and as an opoid, which is similar to heroin and prescription painkillers.
Researcher Bryan Fry, who led the study published in the journal Current Biology, also noted the importance of climate change in the survival of these blennies. He shared that if the world loses the Great Barrier Reef, animals like the fang blenny and their unique venom could be gone forever. This includes the possibility of sourcing these animal species as the next pain-killing drug.
Fish venom has been understudied for most of the time. However, Leo Smith from the University of Kansas believed that the study has the potential to keep the field wide open, serving as a blueprint for possible future works.
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First Posted: Mar 31, 2017 04:20 AM EDT
In the Pacific region are small, fanged fishes with rather menacing bites. Fang blennies, as they are known, are only a few inches long with bright colors and large lower canines.
According to The New York Times, when a predator has a fang blenny in its mouth, it is said to experience a "violent quivering of the head," which would cause the predator to open its jaws and gills, helping the blenny escape, unscathed. This unusual defense mechanism comes from the fact that unlike other fish species that injects toxins through their fins, blennies have venoms through their fangs -- making their bite rather deadly. What makes them especially dangerous is the fact that their venom does not inject pain for their predators, but rather, it causes a sudden drop in blood pressure, which stupefies.
Live Science noted that the fang blenny venom would not be very painful, but it will be unpleasant enough, at least for fish predators. Nicholas Casewell, a lecturer at the Liverpool School of Topical Medicine and an author of the study, shared that out of 100 species, only about 30 kinds of blennies are venomous.
In analyzing the venom extracted from one of these species, scientists were able to identify three types of toxins. These include an enzyme, a molecule used for neuron signaling and as an opoid, which is similar to heroin and prescription painkillers.
Researcher Bryan Fry, who led the study published in the journal Current Biology, also noted the importance of climate change in the survival of these blennies. He shared that if the world loses the Great Barrier Reef, animals like the fang blenny and their unique venom could be gone forever. This includes the possibility of sourcing these animal species as the next pain-killing drug.
Fish venom has been understudied for most of the time. However, Leo Smith from the University of Kansas believed that the study has the potential to keep the field wide open, serving as a blueprint for possible future works.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone