New drug to remove blood-thinning medication post-surgery step closer

Researchers at the University of York have developed a new way to safely remove a blood-thinning drug used during surgery that can lead to harmful side-effects in recovering patients. Heparin is a drug used during major surgery for blood-thinning, however, once surgery is complete, the heparin must be removed so clotting, and healing, can begin. This is currently achieved using a medication called protamine, which binds to heparin and removes it from the bloodstream. The protamine protein can, however, have adverse effects on patients and it must be used with caution. Common side-effects from protamine include low blood pressure, slow heart rate, allergic reactions, as severe as anaphylaxis, and vomiting. Researchers at the Universities of York, Trieste, Valencia, and the Universitat Jaume I, investigated whether a synthetic version of protamine could do the same job, reducing the potentially harmful side-effects. Professor David Smith, from the University of York's Department of Chemistry, said: "The problem in the past with creating a synthetic version of protamine is getting it to bind with heparin effectively and safely. "Heparin is a very large molecule, so if you use small moleculesto bind to it, they can struggle to do this effectively due to the mismatch in size. However, you don't necessarily want to use large synthetic molecules, because these can linger in the body and cause toxic side-effects."