X-Message-Number: 23410
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 12:02:13 -0800
From: James Swayze <>
Subject: Bat Saliva May Offer Stroke Treatment

Bat Saliva May Offer Stroke Treatment

Mon Feb 9, 5:07 AM   
By DANIEL Q. HANEY, AP Medical Editor

SAN DIEGO - Considering the lack of good treatments for strokes, it 
probably is no surprise that researchers will consider just about 
anything. But still, vampire bat saliva?

New data released Saturday suggest that idea, farfetched as it sounds, 
actually may work.

Doctors would like to quickly dissolve the clots in brain arteries that 
cause about 80 percent of all strokes, the third leading cause of death 
behind heart disease and cancer. But their only widely available 
treatment, a bioengineered human protein called TPA, has drawbacks and 
is given to only about 5 percent of U.S. stroke victims.

If used improperly, the drug can trigger disastrous bleeding. One of its 
chief limitations is that it must be given within three hours of the 
start of stroke symptoms. Many victims, hoping their symptoms will go 
away, do not get to the hospital quickly enough.

So, in search of something better, researchers have been experimenting 
with another natural anticlotting substance, the saliva of Desmodus 
rotundus, the vampire bat. The hope is that the active protein, called 
desmoteplase, will be more precisely targeted at clots and can be used 
several hours longer after symptoms begin.

In theory, desmoteplase may break up blood clots in the brain without 
affecting the rest of the body's clotting system and with less risk of 
hemorrhaging inside the head.[cont. 


http://www.comcast.net/News/HEALTHWELLNESS//XML/1500_Health__medical/fe608995-d4c8-496c-9b1f-a2d346c0cc3f.html]

James

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