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New anti-clot agent may be more effective than aspirin 20 April 2005 by Richard Conan-Davies A new class of anti-clotting drugs that may be more effective than aspirin at preventing disease-causing blood clots (thrombus) and has fewer side effects has been developed by a team at Melbourne's Monash University with Cerylid Biosciences Ltd. Thrombus or clots are formed due to platelets normally floating in the blood reacting to a cascade of biochemicals from an injury causing the formation of fibrin that allow blood cells to clot together. The new drug works on the biochemicals that detect clots forming due to increased pressure(shear stress) often due to fatty deposits along blood vessels which is different to the type of injury that causes usual bleeding. Dr Shaun Jackson from Monash Univeristy, told Clearlyexplained.Com news that " One of the major factors regulating pathological thrombus formation is shear stress." he further explained that  "platelets can become activated by the blood flow itself". This new class of drug called PI-Kinase inhibitors stops this from occuring. Dr. Jackson said that " The PI 3-kinase inhibitors we have developed effectively inhibit shear-induced platelet activation" When a person suffers a normal cut this shear-induced situation does not occur and so this drug does not have a significant impact on the normal clotting process.     Aspirin works as an effective anti-clotting agent but has some side effects such as increased bleeding. "Aspirin is the most widely used anti-clotting drug , however it is only effective at preventing fatal heart attack and stroke for about one in four patients," Dr Jackson told Monash Univeristy. "There is a major need for safer and more effective anti-clotting drugs. The 'holy grail' in the field is a drug that prevents disease-causing clots whilst not increasing the risk of bleeding. First trials in human volunteers have yielded promising results.

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