Recently, there’s been an increasing body of research emerge looking at the effectiveness of a biomimetic system that poses as a naturally occurring receptor site within the body. The proposed system allows for site-1 sodium channel blockers, such as tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin, to bind to an artificial site of modified peptides, yielding powerful and long-lasting local anaesthetic effects (up to 16 hours in animals) without the toxicity.
Previously, the use of strong sodium channel blockers (eg Tetrodotoxin and Saxitoxin) for pain relief was deemed unsafe due their tendency to disperse and cause systemic toxicity when used independently. However, when used alongside the biomimetic system, sodium channel blockers have been shown to remain localised, binding to the nerve site and providing a prolonged nerve blocking effect without any toxic effects on local nerves and muscles.
According to the research, the system mimics the body’s own receptors for the anaesthetic, the mimics grabs onto the drug and the system, and once in place, slowly releases the anaesthetic, providing a prolonged nerve block with minimal toxicity.
We feel that these findings are promising and could pave the way for improvements in many future pharmaceutical interventions for pain management and beyond.
