Puffer Fish Poison For Nerve Pain

Today's post from smithsonianmag.com (see link below) talks about yet another poison (tetrodotoxin) from the animal world which may turn out to be useful in the struggle to control nerve pain. This time it's the Simpson's favourite - the Puffer fish, which kills a handful of trainee chefs every year. It's not such a stretch as you might think. Most animal poisons work by attacking the nervous system of their victims, so it's logical to assume that with modification, these poisons can be used to develop drugs which will act positively on the nervous system itself. Along with spiders, snakes, scorpions and others, this is the latest toxin which may be the answer to relentless nerve pain and that of course, affects all people living with neuropathy. Watch this space.

Pufferfish’s Deadly Toxin Could Help Chemo Patients
By Mary Beth Griggs smithsonian.com June 27, 2013

Researchers in New Jersey are working on an experimental drug that they hope will provide pain relief to cancer patients going through chemotherapy. The drug uses tetrodotoxin, the neurotoxin found in pufferfish.

Cancer is awful. And treatments for cancer, including chemotherapy, can be incredibly painful. Even the treatments for the pain, usually opioids like morphine, can be debilitating, with side effects like dizziness, vomiting, constipation and addiction.

Because of this, medical researchers are very interested in developing alternatives to opioid medications. Researchers at the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, in New Jersey, are working on an experimental drug that they hope will provide pain relief to cancer patients going through chemotherapy. The drug uses tetrodotoxin, the neurotoxin found in pufferfish.

In a statement, lead investigator Dr. Samuel Goldlust said, “Tetrodotoxin has been found to be 3,000 times more potent than morphine without the negative side effects of opioids.”

Tetrodotoxin is better known for providing a dangerous allure to foodies who enjoy living on the edge. Even though pufferfish contain enough of the toxin to kill 30 people, they are considered a delicacy—delicious if prepared correctly, deadly if not.

From io9:

chefs have to be trained for two years, during which they will eat many of the fish that they themselves prepare. And make no mistake, people do die from fugu poisoning. About five people a year make puffer fish their last meal, and many more get violently sick from it. It’s not a pleasant way to go.

The poison, tetrodotoxin, is actually produced by the bacteria that the fish allows to colonize its various parts. Tetrodotoxin is a neurotoxin, meaning it takes out the nervous system as it moves through the body. This may sound like a relatively painless death, with the brain going offline quickly. That’s not the case. The toxin starts with the extremities. The first place people notice it is in the lips. Then the fingers. There’s a tingling numbness, and a loss of control. This is a sign that it’s time to get to the hospital. The toxin moves inwards from there, taking out the muscles, often causing weakness, while paradoxically bringing on vomiting and diarrhea. Then tetrodotoxin hits the diaphragm. This is the large, muscular membrane in the chest that lets the lungs breathe in and out. The respiratory system is paralyzed while the person is still fully conscious. Eventually the toxin does get to the brain, but only after the person involved has felt their body being paralyzed completely, entombing them inside. Even then, some people aren’t lucky enough to completely lose consciousness. There are people who report being conscious, either occasionally or continually, throughout their coma.

The same qualities that make tetrodotoxin so deadly—taking out parts of the nervous system—are being harnessed by these researchers to block pain signals from parts of the damaged nervous system from getting to the brain. Forty percent of patients undergoing chemotherapy report having this kind of pain, and it is one of the more common reasons that patients will cite as a reason they choose to stop chemotherapy.

Dining on pufferfish, though, isn’t even remotely a good idea for chemo patients: The treatment developed by Goldlust and WEX Pharmaceuticals uses 300 times less toxin than is found in a single puffer fish and has a very long way to go before it is available to patients. It’s currently in a phase II trial (one of about 100-300 people, according to the FDA, which looks at how effective—and, extra key in this case, how safe—the drug is) and is being tested specifically on its ability to treat patients with “chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain”—pain caused when chemotherapy treatment damages parts of the nervous system.

There’s two more phases after this, one before and one after the drug goes to market. Only about a third of experimental drugs make it through phases I and II of testing, and phase III is the most expensive and lengthiest part of the FDA approval process. But when dealing with painkillers, particularly painkillers that are based on deadly neurotoxins, it certainly makes sense to take the time to make sure the treatment is safe.

 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/pufferfishs-deadly-toxin-could-help-chemo-patients-3446252/#hvJxYvYMcFAsV2B2.99

Zebra Fish The New Rats In Nerve Damage Research

Today's fascinating post from medicaldaily.com (see link below) looks at how zebra fish are being used to study how nerve damage progresses with certain neurological diseases (eg neuropathy). The fact that these fish have an 82% likeness with humans in terms of proteins means that results of studies are less likely to be misleading than those involving other research animals. We've heard of various sea creatures being used to study human neurology and developing nerve damage treatments before but apparently studying myelin sheath degradation in Zebra fish brings up many close comparisons with the same cause of nerve damage in humans but how did they ever discover that in the first place!!

Zebrafish, 82% Similar To Humans, Reveal New Insights On Neurological Disorders And Treatments
By Anoopa Singh | Jun 26, 2013

Zebrafish reveal much about neurological disorders and how to treat them.

Neurological disorders in humans are often difficult to study in human brains. As a result, animal models need to be used to simulate the workings of the human nervous system. Usually, scientists will rely on mice, but recently, the use of zebrafish has become popular due to the animal's utility.

Charcot—Marie—Tooth disease (CMT) is causes by a hereditary genetic disorder that affects the nerves that branch throughout the body in young adults. The disease leads to nerve damage and causes a weakness of muscles, foot and hand deformity, loss of muscle mass, and numbness in the lower body. CMT eventually leads to disability and a loss in sensation in the places most affected.

A new study using zebrafish, done by Andrew Grierson, Ph.D., of University of Sheffield, has revealed a great deal about CMT and potential therapies. Humans and zebrafish have proteins that are 82 percent alike — this is important because it indicates that zebrafish are suitable in studies that compare results to potential treatments for diseases in humans. When researchers altered the genes of zebrafish to be the same as patients of CMT, similar symptoms were seen as the fish aged. Once they matured into adulthood, the fish lost the ability to swim properly. The scientists feel that the difficulties in swimming can be paralleled to the difficulties humans face in walking after CMT has fully developed.

Using the zebrafish, researchers were able to identify what goes wrong in neurons as a result of CMT for the first time. They saw that the myelin sheaths around neurons began to degrade. Similarly, the far branches of nerve cells also started to degrade, leading to the sensations of pain, as messages like sensation could not travel up and down this part of the neuron anymore. Both of these issues led to the pain and neurodegeneration suffered by CMT patients.

The researchers have said that all of this would not have been clear in any other animal. In other animals, the disease starts its effects very early in development, but in humans, disease onset is usually in adolescence. This difference in other animals skews results and makes findings inconsistent with the disease's effects in humans. Grierson said, "Using zebrafish we were able to develop a model with an adult onset, progressive phenotype with predominant symptoms of motor dysfunction similar to [what happens in humans]."

He added that while we know much about other neurodegenerative diseases, others seem to escape our grasp. "Motor neurons are the largest cells in our bodies, and as such they are highly dependent on a cellular transport system to deliver molecules through the long nerve cell processes which connect the spinal cord to our muscles," he continued. "We already know that defects in the cellular transport system occur early in the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Motor Neuron Disease and spastic paraplegia. Using our zebrafish model we have found that similar defects in transport are also a key part of the disease process in CMT

Now that so much has been found out about the way CMT changes neurons for the worst, researchers can start to develop targeted therapies and treatments for the disease. There is currently no cure for CMT, nor are there any drugs that can help manage its symptoms. Patients often depend on physical or occupational therapies or surgeries for relief from symptoms.
 
While a cure may not be made tomorrow, the prospect of it and improved disease management therapies now exist.

Source: Chapman AL, Bennett EJ, Ramesh T, De Vos KJ, Grierson AJ. Axonal Transport Defects in a Mitofusin 2 Loss of Function Model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease in Zebrafish. PLOS ONE. 2013.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/zebrafish-82-similar-humans-reveal-new-insights-neurological-disorders-and-treatments-247168#92xi6cLxdeJUUlFI.99

Fish During Pregnancy

What Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy

Find the latest tips, advice, news stories videos from the TODAY Show with Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales Willie Geist on NBC..TODAY Parents is the premiere destination for parenting news, advice community. Find the latest parenting trends and tips for your kids and family on TODAY.com..MPI leads New Zealand's food safety system, protecting the health and wellbeing of consumers here and overseas. We help guard the international reputation of New .This course is designed to provide an overview on epidemiology and the Internet for medical and health related students around the world based on the concept of .Everything you need to know about the whole pregnancy journey with advice from experts and other moms who've been there..U.S. Food and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20993 1-888-INFO-FDA 1-888-463-6332 Contact FDA..tary Sources. Fish, plants, and nut oils are the primarytary sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Eicosapentaenoic acid EPA and docosahexaenoic acid DHA are .What Glucose Level Indicates Diabetes What Glucose Level Indicates Diabetes :: what not to eat when you have diabetes - The 3 Step Trick that Reverses .Do you really need to eat twice as much food dirung your pregnancy? Of course not! In fact, maintaining a healthy, balancedt is of utmost importance .Find patient medical information for FISH OIL on WebMD including its uses, effectiveness, side effects and safety, interactions, user ratings and products that have it..

What Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy

How Big Does Uterus Get During Pregnancy

TODAY Parents is the premiere destination for parenting news, advice community. Find the latest parenting trends and tips for your kids and family on TODAY.com..Find patient medical information for FISH OIL on WebMD including its uses, effectiveness, side effects and safety, interactions, user ratings and products that .This course is designed to provide an overview on epidemiology and the Internet for medical and health related students around the world based on the concept of .U.S. Food and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20993 1-888-INFO-FDA 1-888-463-6332 Contact FDA.Find the latest tips, advice, news stories videos from the TODAY Show with Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales Willie Geist on NBC..MPI leads New Zealand's food safety system, protecting the health and wellbeing of consumers here and overseas. We help guard the international reputation of New .Everything you need to know about the whole pregnancy journey with advice from experts and other moms who've been there.. Do you really need to eat twice as much food dirung your pregnancy? Of course not! In fact, maintaining a healthy, balancedt is of utmost importance ..tary Sources. Fish, plants, and nut oils are the primarytary sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Eicosapentaenoic acid EPA and docosahexaenoic acid DHA are .What Glucose Level Indicates Diabetes What Glucose Level Indicates Diabetes :: what not to eat when you have diabetes - The 3 Step Trick that Reverses .

Fish Oil For Nerve Problems

Today's short post from informationaboutdiabetes.com (see link below) revisits a long-held theory about the benefits of fish oil for nerve problems. The high concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil have been thought to improve a number of health areas but recent studies with mice have shown that their response to nerve pain improved after fish oil injections. Fish oil as a supplement is not a bad thing to have on your list anyway and if it really helps with neuropathic sensitivity then there is no reason why you shouldn't take it (unless your diet is already high in fatty fish!)

Fish Oil Could Relieve Diabetic Neuropathy
By M Tyler, May 10, 2015

Nerve damage affects about 50 percent of people with diabetes, according to the American Physiological Society.

Numbness, tingling and pain in the fingers, hands, legs and feet are common side effects of diabetic neuropathy, which can lead to ulcers and - in worst-case scenarios - amputations.

A recent study suggests that supplementing with fish oil, however, may help to restore nerves to a healthy state.

"Fish oil would be easy to take, like a vitamin, and should have few side effects when combined with other medications," said lead study investigator Mark Yorek, from the VA Medical Center in Iowa City.
Amazing omegas

The healing properties of fish oil lie in omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to help reduce inflammation, lubricate the joints and improve eye health, liver function and blood sugar control.

Using a mouse model, researchers studied how fish oil changed nerve sensitivity in diabetic mice who were getting fish oil injections. These rodents were compared with a control group of non-diabetic mice who did not receive fish oil supplements.

Results showed that while fish oil was not linked to lower glucose levels, it was associated with better nerve health - both measures of nerve density and sensory signal transmission improved in mice who received the injections.

"Even though a lot more work needs to be done, including clinical trials with human subjects, our animal studies suggest that fish oil can reverse some of the harmful effects of diabetes on the nerves," Yorek said. "Our intent is to do more animal studies to demonstrate that fish oil treatment can reverse the harmful effects of diabetes on nerves even after a long period of poorly controlled diabetes."

The study is published in the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Source: American Physiological Society

http://www.informationaboutdiabetes.com/news/food-and-diet/fish-oil-could-relieve-diabetic-neuropathy