A recent EurekAlert! article discussed a new blood thinner that doesn’t cause the main side-effect of blood thinners: bleeding. Patients with thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, or stroke are typically prescribed drugs that allow blood to flow smoothly through the body. These drugs are called anticoagulants, and they prevent blood clots from forming or getting bigger. However, they work by blocking enzymes that stop bleeding after an injury, therefore causing life-threatening bleeding in case of injury.
Professor Christian Heinis developed a synthetic inhibitor for the enzyme that has high potency, high selectivity, and has a half-life of over 120 hours. In blood and disease-modeling, his team showed that the inhibitor efficiently blocks coagulation in a thrombosis scenario without increasing the risk of bleeding.
