Viper Venom Examined to Save Stroke Sufferers

Apr. 9, 2008— -- The whole episode remains a blur to Kenneth Transeau of Katy, Texas, as he was transported by an air ambulance to a stroke center in Houston. But sometime after the noisy helicopter ride and the hurried hospital brain scans, Transeau went from being a stroke victim to a test subject.

Researchers began dripping an experimental drug made from viper snake venom into the veins of the 69-year-old husband, father and grandfather.

The pet supply salesman doesn't recall anybody mentioning risks. "They may have," he says. "I just knew I wanted to take it. I knew they wouldn't be testing it if it wasn't safe."

But the safety of the drug Viprinex is anything but certain.

For the record, Transeau was told of the risks, the hospital says.

His wife Irene signed the consent form, which detailed the bleeding and deaths seen in previous studies, to enroll her husband in the worldwide trial that hopes to study 650 patients.

"We're taking this (failed experiment) and transforming it" by changing the way it is administered to patients, Freiman says.

The study, launched in November 2005, is designed to determine whether infusing select parts of Malaysian viper venom into some patients can halt a stroke and prevent more brain damage.

For years, the concept has tempted scientists, who believe the way the snake's venom kills also should help doctors put the brakes on a stroke.

When a blood clot forms in the brain, doctors try to dissolve it while getting blood to flow more freely around the blockage and in smaller blood vessels nearby so that surrounding neurons can be nourished and survive.

The viper's venom causes its prey's blood to thin, a transformation that is exactly what doctors want to happen when trying to reverse a stroke caused by a clot, only on a much smaller scale.

"The snakes cause their victims to bleed to death internally," Freiman says. "It would be nice if you could thin blood out like this for stroke victims."

Transeau's case shows the typical race against time doctors face when they encounter a patient suffering a stroke. A stroke occurs when blood flow is cut off to part of the brain, either because of a blood clot or because of bleeding in the brain, causing the brain tissue to die. More than 700,000 strokes occur in the United States each year, making it the leading cause of disability and the third leading cause of death.