2 min | 01 June 2026
Australian researchers have shown how mRNA technology could hold the key to developing a safer way to prevent heart attacks and strokes without the complications of bleeding.
Believed to be the first study of its kind, scientists at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute have used mRNA to instruct the body to produce its own targeted antibody designed to only block the platelets involved in harmful clot formation, while leaving normal clotting intact.
Blood clot or thrombotic complications remain a major cause of death and disability globally, causing heart attacks, stroke, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
One of the biggest limitations of current blood thinners is the risk of bleeding. That’s why a multidisciplinary team of scientists at the Baker Institute set out to address this issue using mRNA, which combats disease in an entirely different way to most drugs on the market.
mRNAs packaged in lipid nanoparticles can be applied intravenously to the cells with personalised instructions to make specific therapeutic proteins and thereby the body becomes its own drug manufacturer.
While mRNA therapeutics have revolutionised vaccine development and opened new frontiers in treating infectious diseases, cancer, and rare genetic conditions, cardiometabolic diseases have missed out so far on this promising innovative therapy.
The study by first authors, Yuyang Song (PhD student, University of Melbourne) and Dr Hung Nyugen (Senior Postdoctoral Fellow and Molecular Biologist), published in Circulation Research, is part of the Baker Institute’s pioneering work in the mRNA and cardiovascular disease space. In 2024, the Institute established the Centre for Cardiometabolic mRNA Therapy to address a gap in using mRNA for the treatment and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases.
Senior study author and co-lead of the mRNA Centre, Professor Xiaowei Wang says this study in mice demonstrated that a single dose of conventional mRNA conferred anti-thrombotic protection for up to 24 hours, while next generation mRNA extended this protection against blood clotting to seven days and beyond.
“We showed this approach is safe, viable, and can potentially avoid repeated dosing requirements while extending therapeutic duration. It could be a gamechanger for thrombosis prophylaxis,” Professor Karlheinz Peter, a cardiologist, heart attack specialist and co-lead of the study says.
Unlike traditional drug therapies, mRNA therapies are far easier and quicker to develop and can be rapidly scaled and adapted.
The next step for this research will be to take it into human studies.
