Protein found in ticks can cure heart disease

Scientists have discovered that tick saliva may be the potential "lifesaver" for heart patients.

In addition to being seen as a sign of summer, ticks are almost assumed to be useless. But researchers have recently discovered their potential benefits: ticks can be used to treat heart disease in humans.

Cure myocarditis from tick saliva

Scientists have discovered that tick saliva may be the potential "lifesaver" for heart patients, as it has the ability to block toxic substances associated with a type of heart disease. special.

If we can develop a drug from the saliva of ticks, we will have many options for new treatments for cases of myocarditis. This happens when the heart is infected with a common virus and 30% of infected people lead to heart failure.

Furthermore, the research team from Oxford University in the UK said that this treatment could not only be used for special cases of heart disease, but it would also go beyond heart disease and be applied to all types. Other related diseases.

The leading researcher Shoumo Bhattacharya explains: " Myocarditis is a devastating disease, but there are not many therapies available to treat this disease. With the latest research, we hope can be inspired by the anti-inflammatory 'strategy' and design a life-saving therapy for people with this dangerous heart disease.

Unexpected benefits from ve.(Photo: Wikimedia).

We can also use the same medicine to treat other diseases - diseases where inflammation plays an important role, such as heart attack, stroke, pancreatitis, and arthritis ".

Myocarditis causes the heart to release chemicals called chemokines . They attract cells that lead to infection in organs, and tick saliva can help neutralize these chemokines.

Need a PR campaign for ticks

Scientists are looking for ways to design treatments. They said that by putting proteins called evasins in the tick's saliva into the wound, it could suck blood from the host for 8 to 10 days without notice. Because these evasins block chemokines that cause inflammation on the host's wounds.

Depending on the species, ticks can have up to 3,000 proteins in saliva. And to avoid having to extract saliva directly from mites, scientists used synthetic genes to develop similar proteins.

To understand the technique of "making medicine from insects" requires scientists to analyze hundreds of proteins in the saliva of ticks, so that they can find their anti-inflammatory substances.

After the study, scientists also found a promising saliva of P991_AMBCA , a cayenne tick in the Americas.

The next step is to find a way to turn these chemokine-preventing proteins into treatments for hundreds of thousands of people diagnosed with myocarditis.

Research also needs a good PR campaign to promote people's understanding of this tiny pest. Because before that, people thought that ticks were often associated with the spread of disease, but no one thought it could be used to cure us.

Jeremy Pearson, deputy medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "They may not be beautiful, but these tiny organisms may be the key to creating better treatments for the whole disease. There is still a long way to go, but the tick study of the tick seems to be a very interesting research area, although it is not entirely unique.

The entire study has been published on Scientific Reports.