Funnel web spider venom for treating stroke

Scientists from the University of Queensland and Monash University found a protein in spider venom may help protect the brain from injury after a stroke, after lab test the Hi1A protein single dose worked on rats. They travelled to Fraser Island in Australia to hunt and capture three potentially lethal Australian funnel web spiders.

“ The reason for this is that funnel-wen spiders  20-30cm deep dig burrows, and Fraser Island being a sand island which makes it easy for us to extract the spiders from their burrows”.

A stork is a brain attack that happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off as there is bleeding on the brain. Over 17m people are affected by stroke and is the second most common death, causing about 6.7m death each year, one in every five seconds.

They found that the protein blocked acid-sensing ion channels in the brain. Prof Glenn King, lead researcher said the protein showed “Great promise as a future stroke treatment”.

The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.