Molecular diversity of anticoagulants from haematophagous animals

To obtain blood meals, haematophagous animals are armed with potent pharmacological molecules to overcome several of their hosts' response systems. Among them, a large number of exogenous anticoagulants which target the haemostatic system have been identified and characterised. Studies on these...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThrombosis and haemostasis Vol. 102; no. 3; p. 437
Main Authors Koh, Cho Yeow, Kini, R Manjunatha
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Germany 01.09.2009
Subjects
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Anticoagulants - chemistry
Anticoagulants - metabolism
Bradykinin - physiology
Hemostasis
Hirudins - chemistry
Insect Proteins - metabolism
Invertebrate Hormones - metabolism
Models, Molecular
Molecular Conformation
Molecular Sequence Data
Peptide Fragments - physiology
Protein Structure, Tertiary
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Structure-Activity Relationship
Thrombin - chemistry
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:To obtain blood meals, haematophagous animals are armed with potent pharmacological molecules to overcome several of their hosts' response systems. Among them, a large number of exogenous anticoagulants which target the haemostatic system have been identified and characterised. Studies on these anticoagulants have expanded our knowledge on the blood coagulation system, and provided a valuable source of antithrombotic therapeutic agents. Advances in genomic, transcriptomic, structural and proteomic tools greatly accelerated the discovery and analysis of the exogenous anticoagulants in recent years. The molecular diversity observed in these molecules is huge and is constantly expanding. In this review, we will provide an overview on the structure, function and mechanism of the exogenous anticoagulants from haematophagous animals and rationalise their molecular diversity.
ISSN:0340-6245
DOI:10.1160/TH09-04-0221