DENVER—Python blood may hold the road map to effective treatments for human heart disease, according to a new biomedical study by University of Colorado researchers.
Researchers at CU’s Biofrontiers Institute have discovered three key fatty acids in python blood that, when reproduced, have the same positive effect on mammal heart growth as that observed in pythons.
A day after a Burmese python feeds, the mass of the snake’s heart increases by 40 per cent and the triglycerides in its bloodstream grow 50 times beyond normal levels. Since triglycerides are the main component in natural fats and oils, this results in massive amounts of fatty acids circulating through the python’s bloodstream.
“Fats in blood is usually associated with bad things in humans,” lead researcher Leslie Leinwand said. “We wanted to find out how the python manages to not have something toxic happen to it.”
The researchers discovered no evidence that the fats in the python’s blood deposited in the reptile’s heart. In fact, they found an increase in activity of a key enzyme that protects the heart from damage.
The research team was able to identify the three key fatty acids that could be used to mimic the chemical makeup of a python’s post-feeding blood. (more…)