Another Scientific Medical Advance

"We saw that this snake venom is able to inhibit platelets from bonding one to another and to the vessel wall. What's most promising is that this reaction works best when the blood is flowing very fast -- exactly the conditions when there is a major blockage."
"What we're going to target is the early stage. If a patient has chest pain, it could stop the disease becoming worse."
"The concept that we can harness something potentially poisonous in nature and turn it into a beneficial therapy is very exciting."
Dr. Heyi Ni, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, scientist with Canadian Blood Services

Green Pit Viper Snake/www.earthtimes.org

It's certainly a leap of imagination to think that the venom milked from a deadly viper native to Southeast Asia, a pit viper, one of the most poisonous of all snakes, so potent it is referred to by locals as a hundred pacer -- someone bitten by the pit viper, it is believed, will be capable of walking 100 steps, before dying -- could represent a possible stroke prevention. But that doesn't appear to have stopped Dr. Heyu Ni of Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital from researching its potential.

The 1.5-metre patterned snake is known scientifically as Deinagkistrodon acutus, also the sharp-nosed viper or Chinese moccasin. It is indigenous to China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Researchers have filtered out all but one protein present in the venom milked from the snake. That one protein has led to the creation of a drug called Anfibatide. In human testing the drug has proven useful in preventing blood clots from forming while not prolonging bleeding.

Venom is extracted from a Southeast Asian viper in this undated handout photo. It's one of the world's most poisonous snakes, and researchers hope the venom of a viper dubbed the hundred-pacer can provide a drug to prevent one of the world's leading killers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - St. Michael's Hospital

The purpose of the new drug is to target specific receptors on platelet surfaces in the blood, known to be involved in the formation of clots. Platelets tend to clump together to stop bleeding when a blood vessel's wall -- typically resulting from plaque buildup -- becomes injured. Sometimes things go awry when this occurs even after bleeding has ceased, and the formation of clots in blood vessels prevent blood flow. Such blockages in the coronary artery cause heart attacks; in the brain, strokes.

The drug attaches to platelets close by the injured wall, controlling their response. Resulting in fewer platelets drawn to the injury, yet a needed plug to halt bleeding can still be formed. Blood from healthy volunteers was mixed with the snake venom in Dr. Ni's laboratory in Toronto, to do a microscopic evaluation of how the blood's properties were affected. In China the drug was tested on 94 healthy volunteers and found effective. It has been deemed a safe compound with no obvious side effects.

If, after ongoing testing on patients undergoing balloon angioplasty to open narrowed coronary arteries, the drug continues to be found effective, Anfibatide would require testing in a randomized controlled trial of patients, and then submitted for government approval whereby it will be possible to market the drug for wide use. Another arrow in the quiver of medical science to aid whatever health-averse conditions afflict human beings.