Brodifacoum is warfarin's mean sibling: it is another vitamin K analogue. It's so potent and has such a long half-life (on the order of months!) that it's more of a poison than an anticoagulant. It's used for the expected things; as a rat poison, etc. Interestingly, despite its lavish toxicity, all warfarin-type compounds, including brodifacoum, have an antidote: vitamin K (in controlled doses).
- Log in to post comments
More like this
There are a number of aphorisms that one imbibes over many years of medical education, especially in medical school. Some are useful; some are not; but some stick with you for reasons that even you can't figure out. For example, I still remember my first day of medical school over 30 (!) years ago…
Check this out:
First-in-Human Experience of an Antidote-Controlled Anticoagulant Using RNA Aptamer Technology
From the paper:
A translatable platform for developing an optimal parenteral anticoagulant should consider several prerequisite properties: easy delivery, rapid onset of action, and…
Science Scout twitter feed
With Ben providing a nice substance abuse prelude, it seems like a good enough time to also explore other things related to death. Such as lethal doses - i.e. for things we scientists particularly indulge in (like coffee and alcohol and, yes - the free cookies at…
On Friday, a 41-year-old Missouri woman was charged with poisoning her granddaughter with an anti-clotting medication. The reason: she wanted to scare the one-year-old's parents into uniting over the child's illness and giving up their divorce plans.
The poisoning was discovered when the little…
Brodifacoum (and bromadiolone, &c.) use leads to dead rodents, hence I'm thinking of having "I [heart] COUMARINS" printed on tee-shirts...
It also smells kinda nice.