Brazilians create an ointment against a deadly spider bite

Small but deadly

Unlike the Goliath spider, one of the largest in the world, the brown spider is small: its size can range from 0.6 mm at 2 cm. However, it is one of the deadliest spiders in the world and its sting causes a lot of damage. It is also responsible for the largest number of bites in in Brazil : an average of 7,000 people are bitten each year, according to Sinan's worsening information system created by the ministry.

An ointment against the harmful effects of the brown spider

A group of Brazilian scientists from Butantan Institute created an ointment that alleviates all of these harmful effects caused by the bite of the brown spider. Denise Tambourgi, senior researcher, said that the active ingredient of the ointment is tetracycline, a compound already used in antibiotics. However, the amount used is a little lower than that of this type of medicine: "We used at a lower concentration than would be microbicidal, however," she said during the interview. "We used it in an baday capable of interfering with the activity of sphingomyelinase D, the main component of spider venom and which is involved in the

In 80% of the scathing cases of brown spider the victims had cutaneous necrosis, however, the remaining 20% ​​also showed destruction of red blood cells (hemolysis), clots in the blood vessels which disturb the circulation (platelet aggregation), insufficiency kidney and even death. "I often say that the poison is just beginning, and that the protein changes the cells. Then there is a deregulation of the body, which leads to the production of proteases – enzymes whose function is to break the chemical bonds of other proteins. in turn, causes cell death and necrosis. These proteases must therefore be inhibited by an ointment. In short, Brazilian scientists have discovered how venom targeted cells and developed an ointment capable of preventing this procedure.

The efficacy of Ointment has been made in human skin cells as well as in animals Since 2005, the team has been testing the ointment effect and the results have always been more and more positive. tests were carried out: "We performed several experiments applying brown spider venom to the cultures." As expected, the cells died, and then we exposed them to toxin and tetracycline. several doses at the same time., then the poison was no longer able to kill the cells. "After testing with human cells rabbits were used in the procedure because the lesion they have suffered is very similar to that of humans. We injected the poison into their skin, and after a few hours we started treating them with an ointment containing tetracycline and lanolin. The latter has entered the composition because it is able to bring the drug into the deep layers of the skin. "The results were very good and the tests were done on humans.