A person’s body begins sending “death signals” after the person suffers from a heart attack. These said signals cause heart cells to die, a phenomenon that makes heart disease the leading cause of death in the world. For decades, scientists have been attempting to prevent these death signals from being communicated. Scientists have found an answer, and they have found it in the unlikeliest of places — venom from a funnel-web spider, one of the deadliest species in the world.
So far the experimental medicine has only been lab-tested.
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The team has successfully used a protein from spider venom on beating human heart cells that were exposed to heart-attack stresses.
"The Hi1a protein from spider venom blocks acid-sensing ion channels in the heart, so the death message is blocked, cell death is reduced, and we see improved heart cell survival,"...
What a breakthrough!
(Image Credit: Tirin/ Wikimedia Commons)