A team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has eyed a snail-derived ingredient to develop a new, naturally occurring anticoagulant that targets thrombus formation.

Although heparin is currently used to prevent dangerous blood clots, it poses the significant risk of excessive bleeding. While blood clots are essential for healing wounds, abnormal clots — such as those seen in deep vein thrombosis (DVT) — can obstruct blood flow and result in serious complications like stroke or death if they travel through the body.

While heparin and other blood thinners can help prevent thrombi, such anticoagulants can also disturb normal clotting (hemostasis) and increase the risk of excessive bleeding, thus prompting researchers to develop a solution that only targets thrombus formation.

As such, the researchers identified a snail-derived compound capable of blocking harmful clot formation while simultaneously preserving normal bleeding control in mice.

The team analyzed several mollusk compounds and identified CCG, which is a new glycosaminoglycan (a type of complex sugar) from the snail Camaena cicatricosa. Although CCG's molecular structure is similar to heparin, the sugar sequence that heparin employs to attach to one of its binding partners is absent in CCG — a difference that could potentially make CCG a safer anticoagulant.

During trials with human plasma, CCG prevented thrombus formation and had no impact on hemostasis. Further, using mouse models of DVT, CCG administered via injection also lessened the incidence of thrombi DVT without increasing the risk of bleeding — unlike heparin.

After additional testing, the team concluded that this is because CCG prevents the assembly of the enzyme iFXase, which is active in thrombus formation but not hemostasis.

While the team cautions that additional research is necessary, initial results suggest that the snail-derived compound could eventually be developed into an anticoagulant that is safer than heparins.

An article detailing the material, Snail-derived compound could be a safer anticoagulant compared to heparins,” is detailed in the journal ACS Central Science.