In a study published in the journal Science, scientists report the discovery of a simple way to synthesize
"Our method is not the first tetrodotoxin synthesis; However, today it is the most effective, improving the level of technology by 30 times," the professor saidDirk Trauner, one of the authors of the paper, in an interview with Interesting Engineering.
Tetrodotoxin is the most poisonous naturalneurotoxin known to mankind. It is produced by a number of marine animals such as pufferfish, snails, octopuses, newts, frogs and worms. This substance is a mystery, because scientists still do not fully understand how animals manage to store a dangerous toxin inside themselves.
Tetrodotoxin was isolated in the early 20th century by Japanese scientist Yoshizumi Tahara.Since then, researchers around the world have been trying to synthesize this substance.Chemists from Nagoya University first achieved success in 1972, but the method they created involved 29 steps, and the synthesis of the final product was about 0.7%.All further attempts to create this neurotoxin either resulted in the creation of a highly unstable substance or were even less effective, they noteAuthors of the new work.
Chemists believe that an efficient and scalable way to synthesize tetrodotoxin will help create a new class of effective painkillers that block sodium channels and are not addictive.
Tetrodotoxin has an interesting propertyblock nerve signals. These nerve signals are integral to the sensation of pain, and as such, it is believed that tetrodotoxin could be a promising avenue for the development of next-generation non-addictive pain relievers.
Dirk Trauner, Professor of Chemistry at New York University
Read more:
Physicists have found a universal "clock" in space: they are more accurate than atomic
Archaeologists have found drawings of creepy people with huge heads: who they were
The James Webb telescope took the first picture of Jupiter: it shows 9 moving targets at once