SPIDER’S VENOM A GAME-CHANGER

Venom from the deadly Australian funnel-web spider can be used to protect the brain from devastating stroke damage, scientists have found. Australian researchers were sequencing the DNA of the venom when they discovered a compound, which they say could protect brain cells even when injected hours after a stroke has occurred.

“We believe that we have, for the first time, found a way to minimize the effects of brain damage after a stroke,” said Prof. Glenn King, from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience. While the venom from these spiders can kill a human, the protein they discovered, Hi1, is not only harmless, but could also be a game-changer in treating strokes. A dose of the protein two hours after the stroke cut down the brain damage in rats by 80 per cent, King wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.