Australian researchers are developing a drug made from the venom of one of the world’s deadliest spiders, which could help heart attack victims.

University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Dr Nathan Palpant, said venom from a funnel web spider can stop a body’s automatic response to a heart attack.

“Billions of cells are lost in the context of a heart attack, and they’re not recoverable,” he told Gareth Parker.

“Even though there has been decades of research to figure out how to stop this from happening, there hasn’t been a single drug that has made it into the clinic that prevents this kind of injury.

“The drug that we have identified from the funnel-web spider is a unique molecule that has the ability to prevent cells in the heart from dying after there has been a heart attack.”

The treatment has been trialled in mice, with hopes to move into human trials.

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(Photo: iStock by Getty Images.)