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(CNN) – Australia is synonymous with poisonous spiders and snakes, but scientists have discovered new toxins in what they label a “truly poisonous” plant.
A team of researchers from the University of Queensland has discovered a previously unidentified neurotoxin that is similar to the venom found in spiders and cone snails.
Unlike their American and European counterparts, being bitten by a dendrocnide tree, which means “tree that stings,” can cause pain that lasts for days or even weeks.
The researchers hope the study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, will help provide new information about how pain-sensitive nerves work and help develop pain relievers.
“Australian biting tree species are particularly notorious for producing [an] An excruciatingly painful pin prick, “Irina Vetter, associate professor at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, said in a statement.
The dendrochnid plant, commonly known by its indigenous name the “Gympie-Gympie” tree, is a tropical rainforest nettle that can be found in eastern parts of Australia.
Like other nettle plants, the trees are covered in fine, needle-like hairs and are known to cause extreme and long-lasting pain.
The fine appendages “look like fine hairs, but they actually act like hypodermic needles that inject toxins when they come into contact with the skin,” Vetter said.
Until recently, scientists couldn’t figure out which molecules within the plant caused such severe pain.
Similar plants typically contain small molecules like histamine, acetylcholine, and formic acid, but none of them cause the severe pain caused by Gympie-Gympie trees, suggesting to researchers that an unidentified neurotoxin could be found.
The team discovered a new type of neurotoxin, called “gympietides,” which they named after the plant.
“Gympietides are similar to toxins from spiders and cone snails in the way that they fold into their 3D molecular structures and target the same pain receptors,” Vetter said. “Arguably, this makes the Gympie-Gympie tree a truly ‘poisonous’ plant.”
Vetter said that the long-term pain caused by trees can be explained by the permanent change of the gympietides in sodium channels in a person’s sensory neurons, rather than the fine hairs of the plants getting stuck in the skin.
“By understanding how this toxin works, we hope to provide better treatment for those who have been bitten by the plant, to relieve or eliminate pain,” added Vetter.
This story was first published on CNN.com. Spider-like poison found in Australian trees and the pain can last for weeks
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