The first impression that we hear about scorpions is that we should stay away from them to avoid being stung because poison delivered by some species of scorpion could be deadly. But a new discovery by scientists on scorpions could be good news for heart disease patients.
A paper published on September 29, 2010 in “Cardiovascular Research”, an International Basic Science Journal of the European Society of Cardiology, revealed that a toxin found in the venom of the Central American bark scorpion (Centruroides margaritatus) could help reduce heart bypass failures.
In a study funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, researchers from the University of Leeds found that one of the scorpion’s toxins, margatoxin, is at least 100 times more capable in preventing neointimal hyperplasia than any other known compound.
Being the most common cause of bypass graft failure, neointimal hyperplasia is the blood vessel's response to injury. It triggers the growth of new cells, causing chronic blockage on the inside of the vessel.
When a vein is grafted onto the heart during a bypass procedure, the injury response begins as the vein tries to adapt to the new environment and different circulatory pressures. The growth of new cells does help strengthen the vein, but the internal cell growth restricts blood flow and ultimately causes the graft to fail.
The toxin works by suppressing the activity of a specific potassium ion channel, a pore in the cell membrane that opens and closes in response to electrical signals, and indirectly enhances delivery of an intracellular messenger, the calcium ion.
In fact, there were a number of good blockers of the ion channel available. Several compounds are developed from plants but margatoxin was the most potent.
It is believed that margatoxin would probably not suitable as a drug that could be swallowed, inhaled or injected. However, it could be used as a spray-on treatment to the vein itself once it has been removed and is waiting to be grafted onto the heart.
Good to know about the research finding.there is a lot of study on the heart the cause being millions of patients affected by the disease...yes there are any grafting surgeries which are failures for reasons previously unknown.I am sure this study is going to throw new light into the surgical proceedings.
ReplyDeleteCoronary artery bypass surgery, called CABG or "cabbage" for short, is a type of cardiothoracic surgery, or chest surgery, which reroutes - or bypasses - the flow of blood around arteries which are clogged. This improves the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. Coronary arteries, which are the arteries through which blood flows to the heart, can sometimes become clogged by the buildup of cholesterol or fat. This clogging slows or stops the flow of blood to the heart, which in turn can lead to pain in the chest, or even a heart attack. The object of heart bypass surgery is to increase the flow of blood to the heart to restore optimal heart functioning. List of Centers in Thailand for Heart bypass
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