[Headline 2:]
DRUG FROM FROG MAY REVOLUTIONIZE PAIN TREATMENT

Human Tests: Powerful Medication Has No Morphine-type Side Effects.

WASHINGTON -- A deadly poison from the skin of a South American frog
provided the decisive clue for the discovery of a powerful new painkiller
that researchers say may have all of the benefits of morphine, but none of
the damaging side effects.

Researchers at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, Ill., developed the
new painkiller, called ABT-594, after scientists at the National Institutes
of Health isolated a poison from the skin of an Ecuadorian frog called
Epibpedobates tricolor.

John Daly of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases, a NIH agency, found in 1976 that an extract from the frog's skin
could block pain 200 times more effectively than morphine. He called the
compound epibatidine in honor of the frog.

Although epibatidine appeared to be a painkiller in rats, it was too toxic
to use in humans.

Ten years later, NIH researchers used new analytic tools to determine the
chemical structure of epibatidine and found that it resembled nicotine.
This was consistent with its painkilling effect. Scientists had known for
decades that nicotine in the blood would attach to a nerve cell and produce
a mild analgesic effect.

A brief report on the compound, along with a diagram of its chemical
structure, was published in the journal Science. Researchers at Abbott
realized that the chemical structure was close to a group of experimental
drugs the company was testing for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. They
also worked on the nicotine receptors on nerve cells.

After screening 500 compounds, the Abbott researchers selected the drug
ABT-594 for further testing. Its chemical structure closely resembled
epibatidine, but it lacked the elements that made the frog compound toxic.

In a research to be published today in the journal Science, Michael
Williams, a scientist and vice president at Abbott, and his colleagues
report that in laboratory animal studies, ABT-594 appears to be many times
more powerful than morphine, but it lacks the serious side effects of that
drug. Morphine is now the main drug used for treatment for intense and
unrelenting pain, such as from cancer or injury.

According to Science, there are 30 million to 40 million Americans with
moderate to severe pain that is not affected by common analgesics, such as
aspirin or ibuprofen. And there are thousands with chronic pain who depend
on morphine, despite its side effects, just to get through the day.

Williams said morphine can suppress breathing. This means the drug often
cannot be used to control pain in patients who already have respiratory
problems.

Morphine also can stop the digestive movement inside the intestines and
bowel, which can lead to dangerous constipation.

The effectiveness of morphine also declines from chronic use and can become
addictive.

Williams said tests with laboratory animals showed that ABT-594 does not
diminish respiration nor cause constipation. He said laboratory animals
also showed no sign of addiction to ABT-594, and the drug appeared to be
effective no matter how long it was used.

The drug is now in early safety testing on humans in Europe and the results
should be known by the summer, said Williams.

Many in the medical field say there is an urgent need for new drugs against
pain.

``If it works in people, it's going to be a completely new kind of pain
reliever, Howard Fields, a professor of neurology at the University of
California-San Francisco, said in Science.