Bloodsuckers to the rescue!

South Florida CEO, August, 2005 by Jaime Hernandez

The next time a vampire comes at you, you might want to drop your wooden stake and put away the garlic. Vampires--well, vampire bats, actually--could save your life if you have a stroke. Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach is testing a new clot-busting drug genetically engineered from a compound found in vampire bat saliva. The drug, desmoteplase, has a major advantage over current stroke treatments: it is effective up to nine hours after the stroke, whereas current drugs must be given within three hours. "That can make a geometric difference in the number of people we can treat," says physician Mark Brody, a neurologist who is leading the trial at Bethesda. The trial, sponsored by New York-based Forest Laboratories, will end in about a year and a half. If successful, desmoteplase could receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration by 2007. Brody says the bats feed on the blood of larger species, such as pigs, and the blood-thinning compound in their saliva keeps their prey's blood from clotting and ending their meal.

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