New UC research discovered a unique class of medications that act as blood thinners by inhibiting an enzyme in the genes of tick saliva.
The research focused on novel direct thrombin inhibitors (DTI) from tick salivary transcriptomes, or messenger RNA molecules expressed by an organism. The result is the development of new anticoagulant medications that can be used to treat patients with a variety of coronary issues, including heart attacks. The study was published in Nature Communication.
"Interest in ticks as a model for developing drugs that prevent blood clotting - [often] the cause of heart attacks and strokes - is firmly rooted in evolutionary biology," says Richard Becker, MD, professor and director of the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute and UC Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease at the UC College of Medicine.
"Analysis of backbone structures suggest a novel evolutionary pathway by which different blood clot inhibiting properties evolved through a series of gene duplication events. Comparison of naturally occurring blood clot inhibitors of differing tick species suggests an evolutionary divergence approximately 100 million years ago."
