Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) have found a new class of blood-pressure regulating peptides in the venom of the common vampire bat, located in Mexico and Central and South America.
UQ Associate Professor Bryan Fry says the peptides could help revolutionise treatments for conditions ranging from hypertension to heart failure, kidney diseases and burns.
However, research has been hampered by criminal activity in Mexico as the decline in social order has made the sites some of the most dangerous places in the world, forcing them to cast new sites.