"Hirudin" is one of the most active and studied components extracted from leeches and their salivary glands. It is a small molecule protein (polypeptide) composed of 65-66 amino acids.
Hirudin has a strong inhibitory effect on thrombin and is the strongest natural specific inhibitor of thrombin found so far. Hirudin has a strong inhibitory effect on coagulation and thrombosis, and has a broad application prospect in clinical treatment and prevention of various thrombosis.
Extended data
Study on hirudin;
Because hirudin has important development value, and the source of leech is limited, the medical circles at home and abroad focus on obtaining recombinant hirudin through genetic engineering.
After 1986, the recombinant hirudin was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli and zymogen respectively. Compared with natural hirudin, the 63rd amino acid (tyrosine) of recombinant hirudin is not sulfated, and its activity is slightly lower, and other properties are basically the same. Intravenous injection has no toxic and side effects at therapeutic dose.
At present, some large foreign biotechnology companies have entered various clinical studies of hirudin. Every year, at least a dozen patents about hirudin peptides are published, including hirudin-like peptides, and there are always dozens of research papers every year. At the end of 1998, the recombinant hirudin drug was officially listed in Germany and registered in more than 10 countries such as the United States, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
The serum half-life of hirudin is too short to play an antithrombotic role. Processing hirudin and PEG into coupling agents can greatly prolong the serum half-life of hirudin, thus improving its antithrombotic effect in vivo (PEG modification is a common method to improve the plasma half-life of protein and polypeptide drugs).
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