More recently, snake venoms have been used in the development of platelet aggregation and blood clotting inhibitors. Integrilin is the first product to receive approval for both of these uses and is now marketed in the US by COR and Key Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Schering-Plough. Integrilin has also been recommended for approval in Europe. Again, a reduced rate of ischaemic events was observed. In most cases, the pain of angina is associated with the rupturing of large cholesterol plaques that have built up, over time, near the outer walls of the heart chamber.
Platelets clump around the wound forming a clot, which blocks blood flow to the heart.
The new therapy reduced the combined risk of new MI and death by 43 per cent. Aggrastat does not dissolve clots but it does help prevent them growing. Researchers found that blood failed to clot in animals bitten by these snakes. Ancrod, to be marketed as Viprinex, removes fibrinogen, a protein that augments clot formation, from the blood, improving blood flow - a useful property that also has potential in the treatment of stroke. In the course of stroke, the blood supply to parts of the brain is interrupted and serious neurological damage is often the result.