The chances of stroke and heart attack arise mainly due to blood clots inside the Coronary artery, which does not let the oxygen inside the blood to reach into the other parts of the body. The medical jargon for this blood clot is generally known as Thrombosis or Thrombus.
The risk involved in blood clotting makes it a typical life-threatening illness leading to signs of paralysis and the sometimes inability of motor vascular functioning of the body.
Recent happenings around the leading illness which have universally spread across the border- COVID, has shown signs of High blood pressure and stroke in older individuals. The disease has put the young and the middle-aged at equal risk, where people with chronic illnesses are suffering more.
The blood clot hasn’t only been a concern for a heart attack in older individuals but also in pregnant women who expect to give birth during the pandemic. There are tons of health-threatening factors associated with blood clots.
There might also be a chance of developing Thrombus in deep veins in the body, which are known as Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). Anticoagulation therapy is preferred to be used to help the blood in thinning through Blood-thinner compounds that remove the clot from the body wherever it has accumulated and blocked the supply of oxygenated blood.
The most common blood-thinning Anti-coagulating agent is heparin, which breaks down the blood clots from the surface and helps so that there isn’t another formation of clots in the future. But, these agents are most likely to prevent those enzymes that help stop bleeding.
A recent study and research have given a ray of hope to the experts that there might be an anticoagulation therapy, which helps in thinning the blood without spilling it.
EPFL’S Research: Target FXII
EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) researchers based in Switzerland tested the possibility of this new anticoagulation therapy on the model of mice, rabbits, and Pigs.
The scientists claimed safe and stable results after testing on these animals and requires another round of testing on humans to understand its effectiveness rate.
The researchers targeted a molecule present in humans, called coagulation factor XII (FXII). They say that this particular molecule is responsible for kickstarting the entire process of blood clotting in a human body.
The chances, according to the experts, are that the humans who lack this molecule won’t be at risk of Thrombosis, but they anyways would spill less blood than any human in whom XII is present.
While accurately comprehending what this new blood thinner might be able to do, it seems more than clarified that it will probably try to slow down this FXII molecule in the body that allows the bleeding process as soon as anticoagulation therapy removes the blood clot.
For now, this study is only tried and tested on specific animals, and in the past as well, doctors haven’t been able to develop a successful agent out of this study that could be used further because the results weren’t competent enough.
What the experts told about the minor details about this new study was a significant change to a previously designed inhibitor called FXII618; this would make it somewhat a potent option available in terms of blood thinner. According to Medical News Today, the researchers,
Used a random screening approache and rational design, identified parts of the molecule that could be changed, and strengthened its binding capacity by more than 20 times and increased its stability in the blood 25-fold.
Later, this carefully designed new change was tested on animals by collaborating with the experts in disease modeling at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Professor. Christian Heinis, from the Laboratory of Therapeutic Proteins and Peptides, EPFL, said that their team could successfully now believe that there is an anticoagulation therapy that could eradicate blood clots without the need to spill blood unnecessarily.
There were other aspects of this inhibitor molecule understood in the experiment. Such as how much dosage would be adequate to make it work appropriately. A final investigation was carried out on an artificial model of a lung. Artificial lungs are used when a person’s lungs cannot function and are used in patients in severe cases of COVID. These artificial lungs tend to clot blood. Hence, it worked this way to test this inhibitor on the artificial lung model.
Professor. Christian Henis, once again said that,
In these devices, contact of blood proteins with artificial surfaces, such as the membrane of the oxygenator or tubing, can cause blood clotting. This process, called contact activation, can lead to dangerous complications and may even be fatal.
The Conclusion
The experts at the end claimed of successful development of a molecule, which could be an inhibitor of the FXII factor in a human. Still, since this was tried over a rabbit model, there needs to be more defining aspects of this study. Although this molecule seemed more affective than heparin as an anti-coagulatory agent, the results are still not concluding enough.
According to these scientists, this blood thinner would be useful even in the patients of Alzheimer’s disease or Multiple Sclerosis. But, there are more limitations to this new drug than any other anticoagulation therapy. The new compound tested on the rabbit remained for only 30 minutes in the body.
Experts now believe that they need a new variation in this drug that would have a more extended retention period to resolve the clot completely. But for now, it requires a consistent push over in the body because of its temporal nature.
Also, the conclusion came out that the researchers could not test this treatment on someone with an acute heart condition because it is recommended not to receive this therapy consistently. There are still certain voids left inside this theory that needs to be filled with proper study and defining aspects.
