A group of researchers from the Butantan Institute in Brazil announced Thursday that they had identified a substance extracted from the venom of a species of fish with anti-inflammatory properties that is effective in the treatment of asthma.
The protein is capable of reducing by more than 75% the number of cells that, as a consequence of asthma, cause inflammation and damage to lung tissue, reported the scientific entity linked to the government of the state of São Paulo.
The results of a study for the treatment of asthma with the TnP protein, derived from the venom of the whitetip toadfish (“Thalassophryne nattereri”), were published in an article in the latest issue of the scientific journal Cells.
The protein was described in 2007 by the immunologists Carla Lima and Mónica Lopes Ferreira, researchers at Butantan, and synthesized in the laboratory by the organization, which patented it that same year.
Since then, various research projects of the organization have pointed to the particle as a potential candidate for success in the treatment of some chronic inflammatory diseases.
In the specific case of asthma, the researchers tested a group of animals with asthma treated with the particle, another group treated with dexamethasone, which is the drug used to combat the disease, and a third group that received a placebo.
In animals treated with TnP, in addition to a 75% reduction in the number of cells that cause inflammation and damage to lung tissue, the substance reduced the number of eosinophils by 100%, responsible for inflammation in half of the patients. with asthma.
Treatment with the synthesized protein also reduced hyperplasia of mucus-producing bronchial cells, which doctors believe is key to relieving asthma symptoms.
Unlike conventional asthma therapies, which can cause symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, agitation and headache, TnP had no adverse effects.
This fish, whose venom has been studied by the Butantan Institute since 1996, is poisonous and inhabits the Atlantic coast between northeastern Brazil and northwestern Colombia and, as it hides in holes in the sand and survives up to 18 hours out of the water, it tends to cause accidents in the bathroom.
Contact with their spines causes sharp pain, burning sensation, swelling, and tissue necrosis.
Source: TSF
