Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012) • Hacker News Board

or more likely arrested for animal abuse, but hey, imagine being the cool druggie who can get high and defend his territory with a snake. this under-bridge be mine.

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#14

Post by eth0up » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:01 PM UTC

eth0up wrote: post #8

I really hope this goes somewhere. I've been left on the curbside with a caduceus up my backside because of self-righteousness, paranoia and hysterics. If an analgesic can be created without committing the atrocity of inadvertently imparting a synthetic sense of wellbeing too, much suffering would end. Just don't poison it with acetaminophen! Maybe I'll abandon my unfruitful hunt for opium lettuce and raise snakes in…

To those who through inhibition of self expression see all subjects as an arrow facing north or south, I pose a question for you to silently grate your arrows edge upon:

Is it for the greater good that pain be palliated with the chronic use of ibuprofen and perforated ulcers, or acetaminophen and failing livers, or any nsaid and heart disease?

Is insomnia now in fashion?

Is lethargy and unproductivity encouraged?

Or is it all a simple lack of empathy, characteristic of pampered narcissists who've acclimated to comfort since birth?

Or maybe an illustrious form of asceticism, an exhibition of impervious strength and endurance?

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#15

Post by _hilro » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:07 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #10

FTA: They admit to being completely baffled about why the mamba would produce it. I would guess it keeps their target calm. A panicking prey is more likely to injure the snake than one that dies before it realizes it got seriously bitten.

I would guess it's just a genetic glitch and not some conscious decision or purposeful design.

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#16

Post by daveguy » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

_hilro wrote: post #15

Someone wrote: post #10

FTA: They admit to being completely baffled about why the mamba would produce it. I would guess it keeps their target calm. A panicking prey is more likely to injure the snake than one that dies before it realizes it got seriously bitten.

I would guess it's just a genetic glitch and not some conscious decision or purposeful design.

It doesn't have to be a conscious decision or purposeful design to be "there for a reason". Evolution tends toward solutions because the population that happens to be closer to a solution are more likely to survive. Nothing the op said was incompatible with evolution.

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#17

Post by YeGoblynQueenne » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:14 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #10

FTA: They admit to being completely baffled about why the mamba would produce it. I would guess it keeps their target calm. A panicking prey is more likely to injure the snake than one that dies before it realizes it got seriously bitten.

>> FTA: They admit to being completely baffled about why the mamba would produce it.

It's because they are scientists. Scientists are always "baffled", in the news.

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#18

Post by krisoft » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:16 PM UTC

GravitasFailure wrote: post #4

h2odragon wrote: post #2

I would much rather tend a field of poppies than a mamba snake ranch. Poppies hardly ever run away from thunderstorms.

On one side, this is an incredible medical advancement and opens the door to a lot of other developments, but on the other side if my doctor said I was getting injected with snake venom...

Your doctor wouldn’t say that. Your doctor would prescribe you polylepiscin or some other vaguelly medical and scientifical sounding name. You wouldn’t know that the compound originally was found in black mamba venom unless you like geeking out on medicine history. (And if you like geeking out on that you would already know that nearly all drugs comes from weird things.)

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#19

Post by mrestko » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:17 PM UTC

The title is not good--lots of meds are betting than morphine...that's why we have all the other opioids: hydromorphone, fentanyl, remifentinil, sufentinil, oxycododone, etc.

If you look at the Nature abstract linked from the news article, all they claim there is that the analgesic effects can be, "as strong as morphine."

This also a protein which is inherently more expensive and difficult to turn into a drug compared with a small molecule.

Re: Black mamba venom is 'better painkiller' than morphine (2012)

#20

Post by rich_sasha » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

mrestko wrote: post #19

The title is not good--lots of meds are betting than morphine...that's why we have all the other opioids: hydromorphone, fentanyl, remifentinil, sufentinil, oxycododone, etc. If you look at the Nature abstract linked from the news article, all they claim there is that the analgesic effects can be, "as strong as morphine." This also a protein which is inherently more expensive and difficult to turn into a drug compare…

For a popular magazine that seems fine... analgesic as strong as morphine + fewer side effects = better overall ... no?