Snake venom is key ingredient in experimental drug for heart patients

An experimental antiplatelet drug has surprising bite. Based on a protein found in snake venom, the new drug prevented blood clotting in mice without causing excessive bleeding after an injury, according to research published Thursday in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. The drug has yet to be tested in humans.Bleeding is a common side effect in the current crop of available antiplatelet drugs, which are usually prescribed for heart patients to prevent blood cells, called platelets, from clumping together and forming clots. Depending on where they occur, clots can lead to a stroke or heart attack.“As a scientist, it is always intriguing to learn from our mother nature,” wrote Y. Jane Tseng, co-lead author of the study and a professor at the Genomics Center School of Pharmacy at National Taiwan University, in an email.“There is a long history of using snake venom as a tool to study blood clotting mechanism,” Tseng said, adding that the only available antiplatelet drugs used for thrombosis — in which a clot occurs in a blood vessel and obstructs circulation — are also based on venom, though not the same on e used in her study.Tur-Fu Huang, co-lead author of the study and a professor at the Graduate Institute of Pharmacology at National Taiwan University, said some snake venoms are neurotoxic — poisonous to the brain — while others are hemorrhagic and “affect blood coagulation and platelet function profoundly.” The new research co...
Source: Medical Hemostat - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Source Type: blogs