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On the battlefield, every second counts, and being able to control bleeding from a wound can be the difference between life and death. 

As many as 40% of trauma-related deaths are the result of uncontrolled bleeding, and this figure is much higher when it comes to military personnel with serious wounds in a combat zone.

But a partnership between the biomaterials research team from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and the US Department of Defense has harnessed two proteins from deadly snake venom that can help stop bleeding at a faster rate than ever before.

That compound is a combination of the two proteins and has been added to a clear-coloured liquid gel that – when applied to an open wound – becomes solidified and helps control blood loss.

Project leader, Dr Amanda Kijas, who is working alongside AIBN director Professor Alan Rowan and the broader team, said the aim is  to have the product placed in lightweight functional packaging for first aid application. The product can be carried in personal first aid kits and used by the injured person to buy themselves precious extra minutes in the fight for survival.

"The research shows there is 5 times less blood loss, and clots form 3 times quicker when the venom gel is applied, compared to the body’s natural process,” Dr Kijas said.

"At this stage it is a clear inconspicuous gel, but we had been considering adding to the final formulation a component to support application in low light conditions.

"The original design was envisaged in a more controlled situation, changing from a liquid to gel state very rapidly as it warms to body temperature. But we are currently evaluating a far more robust design that is in a dried formulation and can be rapidly mixed and applied, developing a more ruggedised product.”

The idea uses the protein ecarin from the venom of the saw-scaled viper, which coagulates the blood – meaning the blood thickens when the protein is applied to it and textilinin derived from the eastern brown snake re-enforces the stability of the blood clot by stopping it from breaking down.

During a snake bite emergency, thickened blood spells certain death if left untreated, but when the right dosage of certain components was applied to blood samples provided by Lifeblood Australian Red Cross, the team found that blood could clot faster and potentially save lives.

"All this work started with lab-based blood clotting experiments with no animals or humans," Dr Kijas said.

"This is the same type they undertake in hospitals when doctors want to understand blood clotting ability of your body, for example after trauma or before surgery. 

"We are lucky that Lifeblood Australian Red Cross supports this research project by providing blood products. The ultimate testing before humans will be undertaken in animals, and that forms part to the preclinical evaluations.

"We do not use the venom itself, but a single component from this complex and diverse acting panel of molecules in the venom. These are made in the lab and so we can monitor the activity and purity very easily and control this in a very precise manner."

The eastern brown and the saw-scaled viper were chosen by Emeritus Professor Martin Lavin, from the AIBN and the UQ Centre for Clinical Research. Professor Lavin and his team were developing a blood-clotting tube called RapCLOT at the time and used the  same venom in their own research.

Dr Kijas said the venom then had success when applied to this project. But it was only coincidence that led towards a unique partnership with the US Department of Defense.

“Back in 2018, a funding opportunity focused on combat casualty care emailed from the UQ research office caught my attention. Because our initial data was exciting and the project fitted the novel approach criteria, we were fortunate to be successful in securing the funding as the success rate for that round was less than 2%.” Dr Kijas said.

“We wrote an additional application to continue the work and again were successful with an expanded team to undertake the preclinical evaluations."

Professor Rowan said the aim was to now produce the gel on a larger scale with a broader team who will assist with scalability, as well as the manufacture and design of suitable packaging to progress commercialisation.

“As the Director of AIBN, I'm really looking forward to translating this research into effective business and industry opportunities going forward.”