Could Snake Blood Soon Benefit Heart Patients?
- Posted on October 28, 2011 at 5:19pm by
Liz Klimas
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Charlie Sheen and his tiger blood may have become a pop culture reference but here they meet their match: python blood.
A new study out of the University of Colorado, Boulder, is stating that python blood could someday have some benefits for those who have heart damage from heart attacks or heart disease.
According to LiveScience, after a python eats, its blood becomes very full of triglycerides and its heart swells to nearly twice its normal size. When lead researcher Leslie Leinwand was approached by post-doctoral researcher Cecilia Riquelme who suggested they see if snake blood plasma would have a similar enlarging effect on rat cells, she laughed her off. Leinwand was initially reviewing changes in blood composition after the snakes fed. Leinwand called Riquelme’s idea “a huge leap”:
“And in fact, I’ve laughed about this since, because I told her not to do it. I thought there was no chance it was going to work.”
But Riquelme went forward with it, and it did work. From this point the researchers set out to find the molecules that caused the growth and also protected the heart from damage in its growth:
They eventually discovered a particular batch of fatty acids that seem to trigger a flood of heart-protecting enzymes to keep damage at bay. Next, the researchers hooked up mice to miniature pumps that injected them with low doses of this fatty-acid mixture over the course of a week.
Just as the rat heart cells had grown in the dish, the living mouse hearts grew, too.
The researchers ultimate goal is to create a drug composed of these molecules that could treat patients with heart disease and other heart damage. They are currently testing the combo of fatty acids in mice with heart disease to see if it has any effect.
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Moozmom
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 12:37pmThat would be yes-come hypertensive medications use snake venom already.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 1:35pmCould Snake Blood Soon Benefit Heart Patients?
If not, maybe the monkey sacrifice is the way to go…
Report Post »LastAmerican
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:44amWe all know the cures are out there. Aside from defense another thing I don’t mind paying taxes for.
Report Post »black9897
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 12:34pmInteresting. Dick Holmes who is a retired CIA officer came to speak and my college a few weeks ago. We were also shown a video of a mission he went on and the story of how he got burned. He was taken to a small village and the locals applied a paste to his burns, and when the stuff was tested back in the states turns out the paste was just about as good as any of the stuff doctors had…the paste had snake oil and other stuff in it. Very interesting. If you haven’t heard his story you should def look it up.
Report Post »gingerbread
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:16amJust as GOD said. Everything in this world is put here for the benefit of mankind. All we have to do is find it. The only problem that I see, is that everybody in the world is now going to raise pythons. The next question would be, will it only work with python blood? How about rattler’s blood? Or maybe anaconda blood? I can foresee a rise in the snake population. Every kind of snake. Can anyone say TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?
Report Post »maumau
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:20amwell they are taking over our everglades i say start there gather as many as you can to test with
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:15amThis is a serious discovery. Do you know the number of children born with congenative heart defects that could possibly be cured if we found a way to grow their heart with a simple I.V. treatment for a few days? And the cure would be entirely natural and non-toxic, unlike how we attempt to save cancer patients with deadly chemo. The rest of you joke, I think this is amazing. I‘ve been to a child’s funeral before, and it is not where I would ever want to be again. If this stuff can save even 1 child, it is well worth the research costs. Chances are though, that if it can save one, it can save many.
Report Post »LastAmerican
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:41amYou believe it’s worth it, I believe it’s worth it, but does Obamacare believe it’s worth it.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 8:13amAfter all the bad press that snake oil has gotten over the years. Finally a good use for all those nasty snakes. If they could use rattle snake blood, perhaps we could recycle that, instead of just killing the snakes and throwing away their corpses. A new industry could be born. Probably not hundreds of jobs at first, but you never know.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:09amIf you kill it, you eat it. That was the rule I grew up with. And I hear that rattlesnake is GOOD!
Report Post »notmeatglennbeckdotcom
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 8:11amHey. Why not?
Snake oil has done wonders for the economy.
Report Post »notmeatglennbeckdotcom
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 8:15amSorry for the stutter. My post didn’t show from the ole iPhone until I reset the screen. Reset the screen. Reset the screen.
To quote Foghorn Leghorn, i got “more wound up than a feather in a whirlwind”.
Report Post »sondoggie
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 10:36amGood one, got a good laugh.
Report Post »notmeatglennbeckdotcom
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 8:08amHey. Why not?
Snake oil has done wonders for the economy!
Report Post »notmeatglennbeckdotcom
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 8:06amHey. Why not? Snake oil has done so well for the economy!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 7:25amI‘m guessing Obama’s blood would work just as well…I’ve never seen a bigger snake.
Report Post »Miyegombo Bayartsogt
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 7:47amYou’re wrong. Barackula sucks the life blood out of America which makes him more vampire than snake.
Report Post »Thelma Lightspeed
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 6:12amAnother study that might have benefits, or could have benefits or may have benefits In the meantime they will need lots more money to continue the study.
Report Post »Constructionist
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 1:40amMy ex-wife must have had this same fatty-acid mixture; every time she ate her *ss got twice as big.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 1:40amIt is served in China…
Report Post »Cold War Vet
Posted on October 28, 2011 at 11:46pmSounds a little creepy and uncomfortable. But if it works…
Afterwards, will you have an urge to swallow live mice whole?
Report Post »americansfightingforcommonsense
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 8:15amForget the mice, how about some demorats? Ha
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