Burmese Pythons and a Solution to Heart Failure
Eric’s options were bleak. His doctor told him he was suffering from a form of heart failure called dilated cardiomyopathy (DC). Mutations in his heart muscle cells had caused his left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of his heart, to enlarge and weaken. This was why he had gained thirty pounds in the last year, why he often felt worrisome pains in his chest, and why he was often too fatigued to get off the couch (“Dilated Cardiomyopathy”, 2014). Eric’s doctor had discussed ways to alleviate his symptoms other than with medication: avoiding alcohol, managing stress, and exercising regularly. But Eric had never been a drinker, he had retired some time ago from a job he loved, and his recent heart troubles had left him too weak to get the exercise he once relished.
Amid the sandstone-walled, red-roofed buildings of the University of Colorado at Boulder sits the Biofrontier Institute, the site of cutting-edge cardiac biology research and second home to Dr. Leslie Leinwand. In 2005, a research team, including Dr. Leinwand, set out to determine what happens to the human heart when it enlarges in different situations. The heart increases in size in athletes like Michael Phelps, heart disease patients like Eric, and patients with high blood pressure. In athletes, the enlargement is beneficial, enabling them to work to their full capacity (Bosler, 2013). For the others? Not so much.
Dr. Leinwand became curious. What if the mechanisms behind healthy enlargement of the python’s heart could be applied to humans with heart disease? She hypothesized that there was something in pythons’ blood that made their hearts stronger. She bought several twenty five-foot long pythons and began investigating. After feeding a few of the snakes massive rodent feasts, she took blood samples and was shocked to find that their blood was so fatty, it was practically milky. In fact, it contained almost 50 times more lipids than normal (Altman, 2011).
Dr. Leinwand’s next step will be to determine whether snake oil can help mice with heart problems. If it works in these models, she plans to progress to human testing.
In Brief:
- Cardiomyopathy is a progressive weakening of the heart.
- After a Burmese python consumes a large meal, its heart enlarges by 40% and has increased capacity.
- Surprisingly, the python’s heart shows no sign of unhealthy fat deposits regardless of how much fat it consumes.
- Three fatty acids called “snake oil” that are found in python blood are responsible for their healthy hearts.
Works Cited
This article was written by cYw30. As always, before leaving a response to this article please view our Rules of Conduct. Thanks! -cYw Editorial Staff