Creation of Analgesic from Centipede Venom

In April, researchers found that, among other things, that the venom from the Chinese Red-Headed Centipede inhibits the sodium voltage-gated channel Na1.7. This gated channel is responsible for pain perception in humans from a variety of sources. Humans born with non-functioning Na1.7 channels are incapable of perceiving all types of pain so research into chemicals that will selectively inhibit those channels are being sought out. The centipede venom has been found to selectively inhibit this sodium channel and when an extract of the venom was tested on mice, it was found to be several times more effective than morphine and without any side affects.
This article was interesting to me because I think its really cool to take something that has been traditionally seen as a bad thing and cleverly use it to make life better. Though it is unlikely that you will see a centipede-based analgesic in hospitals or pharmacies any time soon, this could be a big step forward for the management of pain in all kinds of injuries and illnesses and what's even more exciting is that it may open the door for finding other animal excretions that can benefit humans when used properly.
http://www.pnas.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/content/110/43/17534.full