Giving mice the blood-thinning drug heparin after they were injected with venom from two cobra species reduced their risk of tissue death, which can lead to amputations
By James Woodford
17 July 2024
A black-necked spitting cobra, which are mostly in sub-Saharan Africa
Luca Boldrini (CC BY-SA)
A commonly used blood thinner could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from needing amputations after a cobra bite.
Snakebites kill up to 138,000 people each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South and South-East Asia. Another 400,000 people have complications, such as the death of body tissues and subsequent amputations.
Focusing on complications from cobra bites, Tian Du at the University of Sydney, Australia, and her team found that the venom targets a molecule called heparan sulfate, which lines the surface of cells at the site of the bite, and a naturally occurring substance called heparin, which is produced by certain immune cells.
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Next, the researchers exposed human skin and blood cells to the venom of two cobra species from Africa: the red spitting cobra (Naja pallida) and the black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis). Adding heparin, which is commonly administered as a drug to thin blood, prevented the toxins from killing the cells.
Similar experiments in mice also reduced the risk of tissue death. In mice, heparin “could almost completely block the local damage at the bite site”, says team member Greg Neely, also at the University of Sydney.