Holy Spit, Batman!
Jan. 10th, 2003 02:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheBat Spit May Yield Stroke Treatment
An enzyme that lets vampire bats freely slurp blood from their prey may help stroke victims survive, and do it more safely than the only currently approved treatment, Australian researchers reported on Thursday.
The compound stops blood from clotting and is similar to a commercial clot-dissolving drug, the researchers report in this week's issue of the journal Stroke.
But the bat saliva enzyme -- called Desmodus rotundus salivary plasminogen activator, or desmoteplase -- is hundreds of times more powerful than current drugs.
Desmoteplase destroys fibrin, the structural scaffold of blood clots, said Robert Medcalf of Monash University in Victoria, Australia.
"When the vampire bat bites its victim, it secretes this powerful clot-dissolving substance so that the victim's blood will keep flowing, allowing the bat to feed," Medcalf said in a statement.
[...] Researchers at the company found that desmoteplase was genetically related to the clotbuster tissue plasminogen activator, known as alteplase or tPA and made by Genentech.
For the Stroke study, the Australian team injected either desmoteplase or t-PA into the brains of mice, then watched how their brain cells survived. TPA could kill brain cells but desmoteplase did not, they reported.
This could mean desmoteplase has the potential to help many more stroke victims than tPA -- because it could be given for many hours after a stroke, Medcalf said. TPA has to be given during a three-hour window of opportunity -- during which many people do not even realize they have suffered a stroke.
An enzyme that lets vampire bats freely slurp blood from their prey may help stroke victims survive, and do it more safely than the only currently approved treatment, Australian researchers reported on Thursday.
The compound stops blood from clotting and is similar to a commercial clot-dissolving drug, the researchers report in this week's issue of the journal Stroke.
But the bat saliva enzyme -- called Desmodus rotundus salivary plasminogen activator, or desmoteplase -- is hundreds of times more powerful than current drugs.
Desmoteplase destroys fibrin, the structural scaffold of blood clots, said Robert Medcalf of Monash University in Victoria, Australia.
"When the vampire bat bites its victim, it secretes this powerful clot-dissolving substance so that the victim's blood will keep flowing, allowing the bat to feed," Medcalf said in a statement.
[...] Researchers at the company found that desmoteplase was genetically related to the clotbuster tissue plasminogen activator, known as alteplase or tPA and made by Genentech.
For the Stroke study, the Australian team injected either desmoteplase or t-PA into the brains of mice, then watched how their brain cells survived. TPA could kill brain cells but desmoteplase did not, they reported.
This could mean desmoteplase has the potential to help many more stroke victims than tPA -- because it could be given for many hours after a stroke, Medcalf said. TPA has to be given during a three-hour window of opportunity -- during which many people do not even realize they have suffered a stroke.