A New Pain Reliever from Centipede Venom

Many biting insects use anesthetizing compounds to dull the nerves of their victims, so we don't notice we're being bitten and drained until too late. Now Chinese researchers have announced isolating a compound from the venom of a red-headed centipede that works as well as morphine in mice, perhaps even better:

Ssm6a is a protein fragment that blocks a pain-sensing channel called NaV1.7. Pharmaceutical companies are in hot pursuit of molecules that do the same thing. Because the channel resides mainly in the body’s peripheral nerves, compounds that block NaV1.7 shouldn’t cause dizziness, drowsiness or other side effects of current pain-relief drugs that affect neurons in the brain.

I wonder if it is addictive.