SYDNEY (Reuters) - Toxin from a deadly sea snail found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could revolutionize the treatment of chronic pain, scientists from the University of Queensland said on Tuesday.

"These snails hunt things like fish and other snails and they sting them and they inject a really potent venom that paralyses the prey," said Jenny Ekberg, a research fellow at the university.

"One of the components of the venom blocks the pain receptors which means it will block the pain response," Ekberg told Reuters. "We tested it on animals and found that it was very efficient (at blocking pain)," she added.

A future drug developed from the toxin from the conus marmoreus marine snail could be highly successful as a pain killer for people who suffered side effects from conventional treatments such as morphine.

"Normal pain (relief) drugs such as morphine have a lot of side effects such as drowsiness, nausea and vision disturbances because they are not very specific," said Ekberg. "This toxin targets only pain, it doesn't affect anything else."

The toxin is currently very expensive to produce as scientists must extract it from the sea snail which measures just 6 cm (2 inches).

"What we are trying to do now is to synthesize it chemically or artificially and that is going to reduce the cost enormously," said Ekberg.

Research was currently in the animal testing phase, but Ekberg said she was hopeful of starting human trials in about a year.