Australian funnel spider whose venom is known to kill its prey in 15 minutes is now surfacing as a possible drug for revitalizing brains affected by a stroke.
The deadly spider has found to have a protein in its venom that is believed to undo the cells damage after a stroke.
The researchers, from the University of Queensland and Monash University, took a trip to Fraser Island, Australia in search of these killing insects and detained three of them.
"We regularly collect spiders from Fraser Island off the south coast of Queensland; the reason for this is that funnel-web spiders dig burrows that can be as deep as 20-30 cm. Thus, digging them up from hard clay soils is very difficult. Fraser Island is a sand island which makes it easy for us to extract the spiders from their burrows," explained lead researcher Prof Glenn King.
The researchers took these spiders to the lab for the purpose of milking, after cajoling the spider they gathered its venom which then was tested. The venom found to have a molecule, called Hi1a, which was notably of worth because it looked like two copies of another brain cell-protecting chemical stitched together.
Prof King said the protein showed "great promise as a future stroke treatment".
"We believe that we have, for the first time, found a way to minimize the effects of brain damage after a stroke. Hi1a even provides some protection to the core brain region most affected by oxygen deprivation, which is generally considered unrecoverable due to the rapid cell death caused by stroke," according to the research published in world-renowned publication, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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