Spider venom drug heads to clinical trial to repair heart attack damage

Heart attacks remain a leading cause of death worldwide, and even those who survive often suffer from debilitating heart failure.

The search for effective treatment methods continues and now a new drug offers hope.

Scientists at the University of Queensland have studied the venom of the K’gari funnel-web spider, an arachnid native to Australia.

Their research has led to a remarkable finding: a peptide in the venom called Hi1a could be the key to protecting the heart from damage during a heart attack.

The team has reached a significant medical milestone by developing the first drug to treat heart attacks and protect donor hearts.

They are now preparing to conduct human clinical trials, funded with $17.8 million in funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

“This MRFF funding will enable us to conduct human clinical trials to test a miniaturized version of Hi1a as a drug to treat heart attacks and protect donor hearts during the collection process,” said Professor Glenn King from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience ( IMB) of the UQ.

Synthetic version of a spider venom molecule

This four-year study will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug.

Researchers have developed a synthetic version of a spider venom molecule for use in a new drug.

The Hi1a-based drug is intended to repair heart tissue damaged by heart attacks.

In animal studies, Hi1a has demonstrated its ability to protect the heart from oxygen deprivation, a major cause of heart damage during seizures.

This protein prevents heart tissue from becoming too acidic during a heart attack. Hi1a targets ASIC1a channels (acid-sensitive ion channel 1a) in cardiac muscle cells.

During a heart attack, these channels open due to a lack of oxygen, leading to excessive acidification and tissue death. Hi1a is designed to prevent this by blocking the ASIC1a channels, thereby protecting the heart tissue from damage.

“Our team has shown in animal models that Hi1a protects the heart from damage caused by oxygen deprivation during a heart attack or when a donor heart is removed,” King said.

The clinical trial is the result of years of research into the use of Hi1a to treat heart attacks and strokes and to improve the viability of the donor heart.

It could improve the patient’s life

Coronary heart disease is a major health problem not only in Australia but around the world.

Almost 60,000 Australians are hospitalized with a heart attack every year and unfortunately 7,000 of them do not survive. Approximately 25% of heart attack survivors experience severe heart failure within a year.

“Transplantation is the only cure for heart failure, but there is a significant shortage of donor hearts worldwide, in part due to the damage caused during the collection process,” said Nathan Palpant, associate professor at IMB.

“Despite the enormous socioeconomic burden of heart attack and heart failure, there is no single drug that limits the loss of heart cells during a heart attack or protects donor hearts – our team hopes to change this,” Palpant added in the press release.

The team suggests that Hi1a could be used to improve the condition of donor hearts and make them more suitable for transplantation.

“If successful, it will improve patient survival and quality of life, dramatically expand the pool of donor hearts available for transplantation, and significantly reduce healthcare costs,” Kim noted.

The results were reported in the European Heart Journal.