Drug inspired by spider venom aims to reverse damage caused by heart attack

For the first time, scientists are testing whether a unique drug inspired by spider venom can reverse the tissue damage caused by a heart attack. Starting next summer, the team plans to test the safety of the molecule in a clinical trial in Australia.

The molecule, a small protein called Hi1a, mimics one made by Australian funnel-web spiders. It prevents the heart tissue from becoming too acidic during a heart attack.

The hope is that Hi1a will be the first drug to directly treat tissue damage caused by heart attacks. said a statement from the team. Although it is initially being developed for use in hospitals, the goal is that it could one day be administered by first responders, the team told Live Science in an email. The optimal time to administer the drug after a heart attack is not yet known, but the authors suspect that it “does not need to be administered quickly,” they said.

Hi1a could also be used to increase the number of donor hearts available for transplantation, the team added. For example, Hi1a could protect donor hearts from damage that occurs during the retrieval process.

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Hi1a targets a tiny passageway called acid-sensitive ion channel 1a (ASIC1a), which allows substances to move in and out of cells throughout the bodyalso in the circulatory system.

During one heart attackHeart muscle cells no longer receive oxygen due to reduced blood flow. This lack of oxygen causes one cellular chain reaction The activates ASIC1a channels on the surface of cardiac muscle cells. When the ASIC1a channels are open, charged molecules rush in and make the heart tissue too acidic. This causes the tissue to die.

Hi1a blocks ASIC1a channels and short-circuits this process. Glenn KingProfessor of molecular biosciences at the University of Queensland in Australia, Live Science told LiveScience in an email. In a study published in 2023 European Heart JournalKing and colleagues showed that injecting Hi1a into mice can protect the heart from damage caused by a lack of blood flow during a heart attack. Similar effects were observed in human cardiac muscle cells in a Petri dish.

Preclinical studies suggest that the new drug prevents heart muscle cell death due to lack of oxygen during a heart attack. (Image credit: Magicmine via Getty Images)

Although H1a appears to have positive effects on rodents, the same cannot be said for other animals that hunt funnel webs.

“Hi1a does something very different than acid-sensitive ion channels in birds, which are predators of spiders,” King said. “Instead of inhibiting these channels, it actually activates them, thereby causing pain. Therefore, we hypothesize that the spider may use Hi1a defensively to inflict pain on potential predators.”

If the first human trial is successful, the research team will move on to larger trials. They will use these later trials, known as Phase II and Phase III, to further determine the drug’s safety and effectiveness in a broader group of people.

However, clinical trials take many years, so it will be a while, if ever, before Hi1a is available to patients.

Several drugs for reversing heart damage have shown promise in animals, he said Heerajnarain Bullucka consultant cardiologist with the National Health Service and honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, told Live Science in an email. However, all of these drugs have failed in trials, said Bulluck, who is not involved in the research.

To date, the only cardioprotective drug to make it into a Phase III clinical trial has not been approved because it led to strokes.

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