Mexican drug cartels are blocking access to vampire bat colonies that could revolutionise treatments for serious medical conditions, a research group says.
The University of Queensland-led group says it cannot gather venom from vampire bats in the field because drug traffickers have moved into the area near Cuernavaca in Mexico's Morelos state.
"We can't access our original field site in Mexico anymore, because we're told that region has been taken over by drug traffickers," UQ's biological sciences researcher Associate Professor Bryan Fry said.
The study group had visited vampire bats at the site over 12 years, but a US crackdown on air and sea drug trafficking had pushed cartels towards land travel, making it too dangerous to return.
"It's heartbreaking because Mexico is such a beautiful country and it's one of my favourite places to do field work but it's obviously becoming unsustainable," Prof Fry said.
The research group discovered peptides found in their venom are mutated forms of those that relax blood vessels in humans.
"This could potentially help doctors in the treatment of a range of disorders featuring heightened pressure in small blood vessels, or may be able to improve blood flow to damaged or transplanted tissue such as skin grafts," Prof Fry said.
He said they cannot move forward in their research without gathering new peptides, and that they are now looking at options in Costa Rica.
"We'll have to find new field sites that are safe to work in, but once we do that we'll be on track to find new peptide variations and potential wonder drugs, helping improve and save lives."
