Human hearts used in stinger research
SCIENTISTS will use cells from human hearts and inject fat into veins to find a new cure for the venom of dangerous marine stingers.
It comes as Far North Queensland prepares for an "enormous" stinger season.
James Cook University and Queensland Health have received $42,000 from the Queensland Emergency Research Foundation for a joint project examining how box jellyfish and irukandji venom works when victims are stung.
The Queensland-first project would test the effect the marine stingers’ venom has on human heart cells.
Venom from box jellyfish, considered to be among the most deadly in the world, contains toxins that attack the heart and nervous system.
It is so powerful victims have reportedly gone into shock, drowning after heart failure before reaching shore.
The researchers, Cairns Base Hospital director of emergency medicine Dr Peter Pereira, JCU stinger expert Dr Jamie Seymour and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital toxicologist Dr Mark Little will also trial the use of hot water and fats as effective treatments for jellyfish venom.
"What we’ve shown is the venom from box jellyfish is fat soluble, so what we’re hoping is if you are stung, instead of having treatment with painkillers and everything else, they actually give you an injection of fat into your veins and we solve the problem," Dr Seymour said.
"It seems to work for cane toads when we run it but this is what this money will actually allow us to do, to test this, to see whether it really works on humans."
The existing antivenene for box jellyfish stings worked far too quickly and the treatments for irukandji were reactive rather than proactive, Dr Seymour said.
"The problem is, a lot of the time we can’t treat it and it’s like where do we go from here?" he said.
Box jellyfish measuring 20-25cm across their bells had been spotted in large numbers at Weipa in the past two weeks, 15cm specimens have washed up at Mission Beach and many smaller box jellyfish have been collected off Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas.
Dr Seymour believed Far North Queensland was in for an "enormous" stinger season.
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Up close: JCU professor of marine and tropical biology Jamie Seymour and Cairns Base emergency doctor Peter Pereria inspect a box jellyfish. Picture: Jake Nowakowski
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