The saliva of the vampire bats – which feeds on the blood of birds and mammals – is a valuable anti-stroke drug. It contains a substance that dissolves a blood clot that causes ischemia and therefore hypoxia in the brain.
Research in 10 public health hospitals in the UK has shown that a drug based on a substance taken from a vampire bat’s saliva can help a patient up to 9 hours after a stroke.
The conventional intravenous drug used today must be administered no later than three hours after the stroke.
Scientists became interested in bats – vampires, because it was already known that they use saliva so that the blood of their victims would be thin enough for them to drink it.
Consultant at the University Hospital in North Staffordshire, Dr Christine Roffe, told the media that the research was in its early stages, but if positive, the new drug could be launched on a large scale within three years.
The teeth of vampire bats are shaped like narrow plates used to cut through the skin, and store the blood of their victims in the stomach. Vampires can transmit diseases such as rabies. They live mainly in tropical and subtropical zones of Central and South America.
Approx. 80 percent strokes is the so-called ischemic strokes (cerebral infarction) – cerebral hypoxia results from blockage of the vessel by a local clot, embolism from a distant site, or a general decrease in blood flow to the brain.
The second type of strokes is the so-called hemorrhagic strokes, commonly known as cerebral haemorrhage. The most common cause is high blood pressure. It is the sudden discharge of blood from a broken vessel that destroys brain tissue. (PAP)
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