Deadly spider venom could soon be used in heart attack victims
The venom of the scary and deadly funnel-web spider could hold the key to treating two of the nation’s biggest killers thanks to an Australian research breakthrough.
Exclusive: It’s meant to be deadly but in a medical breakthrough scientists have discovered funnel-web spider venom can actually save lives by stopping the death of heart muscle after a heart attack.
It can also keep a heart alive for hours after it has been removed from the body in a major advancement that will revolutionise transplant surgery.
The latest discoveries build on research that has already found molecules from the same spider venom can stop brain damage after a stroke.
Australian researchers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are working on turning the molecule from the Fraser Island funnel-web spider into a drug that could treat two of the deadliest health conditions in Australia.
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Clinical trials could begin within two years.
Heart disease is Australia’s leading cause of death, with 51 lives lost to the condition every day.
It costs the economy a staggering $6.7 billion a year.
An award-winning News Corp Australia and Heart Foundation campaign earlier this year achieved a new Medicare item for a Heart Health Check for Australians aged over 45 that will prevent 76,500 heart attacks over the next five years.
It’s hoped the new venom based drug could be a life saver for the 57,000 Australians who have a heart attack each year.
Researchers from University of Queensland Institute of Medical Bioscience, which has a library of over 700 animal venoms, one of the largest collections in the world, isolated the life saving molecule.
Professor Glenn King from the institute says studies in rats have shown when it’s given to rodents after a stroke it decreases brain damage by 80 per cent.
“There are no drugs that protect the brain in strokes at the moment,” Professor King said.
Humans lose two million neurons every minute after a stroke and the current treatment — clot busting drugs — must be given within two hours.
Studies show the spider venom treatment works to reduce brain damage in rats even when it is administered eight hours after a stroke (the equivalent of 12 hours in humans).
The neurological and co-ordination skills of the rats return to normal levels after they received the drug.
The same channels in the human body that are targeted by the venom molecule have a role in heart attacks and new research shows it can also stop the death of heart muscle.
The drug prevents ischaemic injury — a restriction in blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen that is needed to keep tissue alive.
Medical director of heart transplants at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Professor Peter Macdonald, has successfully tested the molecule on rodent hearts to show it kept them functioning longer once removed from the body.
It’s hoped this breakthrough could see the drug used in human heart transplants where the donation occurs after circulatory death.
Currently for the heart to be useful, the patient must die within about 30 minutes of life support being turned off.
If spider venom is then added to fluid that flushes the heart after its removed from the body, it is hoped it could be used a full hour after a death.
“We think the results are very promising and we are doing final experiments to pin down the mechanism,” said Professor Macdonald, who heads the Victor Chang transplant research lab.
One theory about why spider venom works is that it helps immobilise the spider’s prey and preserves the tissue intact.
“When you mention it to friends and colleagues it captures the imagination,” Professor Macdonald said.
Originally published as Deadly spider venom could soon be used in heart attack victims