HIRUDIN - THE PROMISING ANTITHROMBOTIC

It has long been known that medicinal leeches (Hirudo medicinalis) contain a substance with anticoagulant properties. In early studies, aqueous extracts and dry preparations from leeches containing minute amounts of the active substance were used to prevent blood from clotting. Only after the development of protein chemistry and the elucidation of the biochemistry of blood coagulation was the anticoagulant agent, hirudin, isolated and its chemical nature and mode of action clarified. The historical background of hirudin isolation as well as the individual steps of its biochemical and pharmacological characterization have been described in several reviews (36,68,70,72,74,79).