US researchers at Duke University Medical Centre in New Carolina say that developing medicines and their antidotes at the same time could lead to safe drugs and save lives.

Lead researcher Professor Bruce Sullenger and his team have been looking into a new class of drugs called aptamers, the effects of which can be reversed immediately if an adverse reaction occurs.

According to a Press Association report, the researchers have so far trialled one package of drugs and their antidotes on patients with blood clots.

The antidote developed ensured that excessive blood thinning arising from anticoagulant medications could be reversed and did not cause excessive bleeding in patients being treated for blood clots.

Prof Sullenger said:

‘With any anticoagulant, you are trying to reduce your chances of having clotting because it can lead to a heart attack or stroke during treatment.

‘Yet bleeding is a common side effect during and after treatments that require anticoagulation therapy such as surgery or angioplasty [widening blocked arteries].’

The team have researched eight aptamers and their antidotes to date, although the results of trials of the anticoagulant drugs have not yet been published.

A report on the aptamer research being conducted at Duke University is published in the journal Nature Medicine.

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