Irvine : UCI Chemists Get Grant to Develop Heart Toxins

A team of UC Irvine chemists has been awarded a $1.3-million grant to synthesize chemical compounds, including toxins found in rare Central and South American “poison-dart frogs,” that have the potential for treating heart disease.

The five-year grant involves working with toxins that are capable of increasing the force of heart muscle contractions, according to Dr. Larry Overman, professor of chemistry. The compounds are members of a class of chemicals known as dendrobatid alkaloids that are isolated from skin secretions of poison-dart frogs from Colombia and Ecquador.

Indians in those countries rub the tips of arrows on the frogs and use the powerful muscle-relaxing properties of the toxins to paralyze birds and game animals, according to UCI.

However, because the poisonous frogs are so rare, they do not provide a reliable source of the toxins for biomedical research. Since 1980, Overman’s group has developed the only existing method of preparing the rare toxins from simple chemicals. Overman’s work follows pioneering discoveries by a National Institutes of Health research group that isolated and analyzed the chemical structure of the natural compounds.