Anticoagulatory Substances of Bloodsucking Animals: From Hirudin to Hirudin Mimetics

Bloodsucking animals contain substances in their saliva that specifically interfere with the blood clotting system. These substances are mainly low molecular weight proteins with a molecular mass of between 4 and 50 kDa. Some have become accessible in large quantities with the help of genetic engineering, and as a result their structures and structure—activity relationships have been studied and clinically tested. In the light of what is known about the mode of action of these natural products at the molecular level, new compounds with possible therapeutic effect can be derived. In the last ten years this approach has been tested with the proteinase inhibitor hirudin, obtained from medicinal leeches, and with the thrombin/hirudin complex. The serine protease thrombin plays a central role in the complex pathway of the blood clotting process and its pathophysiological effect finally results in thrombosis. The selectivity of the formation of complexes from hirudin and thrombin lies in the bivalent interaction of the inhibitor with the active site of the enzyme as well as with a substrate recognition site outside of the active site, the so-called fibrin-(ogen) binding site (FBS). The knowledge of this mode of action enabled the synthesis of bifunctional thrombin inhibitors based on hirudin peptides. Hirudin and hirudin mimetics in vivo have been shown to be highly potent anticoagulants for the treatment of arterial and venous thrombosis.     

Microfluidic system for simultaneous optical measurement of platelet aggregation at multiple shear rates in whole blood

Thrombosis is the pathological formation of platelet aggregates which occlude blood flow causing stroke and heart attack-the leading causes of death in developed nations. Instrumentation for diagnosing and exploring treatments for pathological platelet aggregation thus has the potential for major clinical impact. Most current thrombosis methods focus on single flow conditions, non-occlusive platelet adhesion, or low shear rates and so are limited in their application to comparative studies involving multiple, pathological test conditions (e.g., shear rate, stenotic geometries that mimic arteries, and rapid platelet accumulation to occlusion). The field could benefit from a low volume, high throughput, short analysis time, and low cost system while minimizing sample handling. We report on the design, fabrication, testing, and application of a microfluidic device and associated optical system for simultaneous measurement of platelet aggregation at multiple initial shear rates within four stenotic channels in label-free whole blood. Following computational design, requisite shear rates were achieved in the device by micro- surface milling a mold and subsequent PDMS casting. We applied the microfluidic system to measure platelet aggregation in whole porcine blood for shear rates spanning physiological to pathological flow conditions (500-13000 s(-1)). Real-time, non-contact, label-free, microscope-free measurements of platelet aggregation were acquired using an optical system comprising a 650 nm diode laser and a linear CCD. We observed fully occlusive platelet aggregation in less than 20 min above a threshold initial shear rate of 4000 s(-1), and no occlusive platelet aggregation below 1500 s(-1) (N = 86 trials). Accumulation of thrombus was consistent between laser intensity, light microscopy, histology, and mass flow rate measurements. The amount of blood volumes producing occlusion were dependent on shear rate. Times to occlusion were not found to be dependent on shear rate above the threshold level of 4000 s(-1). This microfluidic system enables measurement of the entire process of occlusive platelet thrombosis in whole, unlabeled blood, in vitro, at multiple shear rates. Such a system may be useful as a point-of-care diagnostic tool for studying anti-platelet therapies in individual blood samples from high-risk patients.     

An Optical Biosensing System Based on Interference-Enhanced Reflection with Aptameric Enzyme Subunits of Thrombin

The aptameric enzyme subunit (AES) is an artificial enzyme subunit that can allosterically control partner enzyme activity. By means of an AES, target molecules can be detected by measurement of enzymatic activity in a homogeneous solution. We have developed a thrombin aptamer-based AES that can detect several targets by measuring clotting time in a fibrinogen solution. Measurement of the clotting activity in the fibrinogen solution is not suitable for a convenient biosensor. However, kinetics measurement of clotting activity is suitable for convenient detection of thrombin activity. The interference-enhanced reflection (IER) method is a simple, real-time technique to detect the thickness and/or refractive index of a thin film formed on a glass substrate surface. We demonstrated that clotting activity on a glass substrate with immobilized thrombin can be monitored in real time by IER. By means of the IER method, we were able to detect the target molecules of an AES. IER-based sensors have already been commercialized as portable sensors for the detection of organic compounds. Thus, portable biosensors could be developed by combination of the IER and AES technologies.     

非肽类凝血酶抑制剂的比较分子力场分析

在血栓症和止血疗法中凝血酶起重要的生物调节作用，凝血酶抑制剂由于基溶 血栓作用成为药物设计的热点，对非肽类芳基磺酸酯系列凝血酶抑制剂进行了三维 定量构效关系研究。用Autodock方法和比较分子力场分析相结合构建了该类分子的 定量构效关系模型，得到三维等值线图。模型的传统相关系数r~2=0.956，交叉验 证系数q~2=0.681, F_(4,16) = 85.985，标准偏差S = 0.158。该模型为凝血酶抑 制剂的进一步结构改造提供了有益的启示。     

A microfluidics-based turning assay reveals complex growth cone responses to integrated gradients of substrate-bound ECM molecules and diffusible guidance cues

Neuronal growth cones contain sophisticated molecular machinery precisely regulating their migration in response to complex combinatorial gradients of diverse external cues. The details of this regulation are still largely unknown, in part due to limitations of the currently available experimental techniques. Microfluidic devices have been shown to be capable of generating complex, stable and precisely controlled chemical gradients, but their use in studying growth cone migration has been limited in part due to the effects of shear stress. Here we describe a microfluidics-based turning-assay chip designed to overcome this issue. In addition to generating precise gradients of soluble guidance cues, the chip can also fabricate complex composite gradients of diffusible and surface-bound guidance cues that mimic the conditions the growth cones realistically counter in vivo. Applying this assay to Xenopus embryonic spinal neurons, we demonstrate that the presence of a surface-bound laminin gradient can finely tune the polarity of growth cone responses (repulsion or attraction) to gradients of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), with the guidance outcome dependent on the mean BDNF concentration. The flexibility inherent in this assay holds significant potential for refinement of our understanding of nervous system development and regeneration, and can be extended to elucidate other cellular processes involving chemotaxis of shear sensitive cells.     

Highly efficient control of thrombin activity by multivalent nanoparticles

We have demonstrated that the incorporation of sulfated galactose acid (sulf-Gal) into thrombin-binding-aptamer (TBA)-conjugated gold nanoparticles (TBA-AuNPs) enables highly effective inhibition of thrombin activity toward fibrinogen. AuNP bioconjugates (TBA(15)/TBA(29)/sulf-Gal-AuNPs) were prepared from 13 nm AuNPs, 15-mer thrombin-binding aptamer (TBA(15)), 29-mer thrombin-binding aptamer (TBA(29)), and sulf-Gal. The numbers of TBA and sulf-Gal molecules per AuNP proved to have a strong impact on inhibitory potency. The best results were observed for 15-TBA(15)/TBA(29)/sulf-Gal-AuNPs (with 15 TBA(15) and 15 TBA(29) molecules per AuNP), which, because of their particularly flexible conformation and multivalency, exhibited ultrahigh binding affinity toward thrombin (K(d)=3.4×10(-12) M) and thus extremely high anticoagulant (inhibitory) potency. Compared to the case without inhibitors (the "normal" value), their measured thrombin clotting time (TCT) was 91 times longer, whereas for TBA(15) alone it was only 7.2 times longer. Their anticoagulant activity was suppressed by TBA-complementary-sequence (cTBA)-modified AuNPs (cTBA(15)/cTBA(29)-AuNPs) at a rate that was 20 times faster than that of free cTBA(15)/cTBA(29). Thus, easily prepared, low-cost, multivalent AuNPs show great potential for biomedical control of blood clotting.     

A novel chitosan-based sponge coated with self-assembled thrombin/tannic acid multilayer films as a hemostatic dressing

In order to prepare a novel hemostatic dressing for uncontrolled hemorrhage, a porous chitosan sponge was coated with self-assembled(thrombin/tannic acid)n films, which were based on hydrogen bonding interactions between thrombin and tannic acid at physiologic p H. According to the whole blood clotting test, the coated chitosan sponges showed a significantly high rate of blood clotting due to the addition of thrombin. On the other hand, the storable half-life of immobilized thrombin is extended to 66.9 days at room temperature, which is 8.5 times longer than unfixed thrombin. It is because of the immobilization effect of, not only the porous structure of chitosan sponge but also the interactions between thrombin and tannic acid. In addition, the tannic acid has similar antibacterial effect to chitosan. Therefore, it is an excellent combination of chitosan, thrombin and tannic acid. Besides, all of materials in this research have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration(FDA). So the chitosan-based sponge is a promising candidate dressing for uncontrolled hemorrhage due to its storable, bio-safe and highly effective hemostatic properties.     

Control of electroosmotic flow in laser-ablated and chemically modified hot imprinted poly(ethylene terephthalate glycol) microchannels

The fabrication of microchannels in poly(ethylene terephthalate glycol) (PETG) by laser ablation and the hot imprinting method is described. In addition, hot imprinted microchannels were hydrolyzed to yield additional charged organic functional groups on the imprinted surface. The charged groups are carboxylate moieties that were also used as a means for the further reaction of different chemical species on the surface of the PETG microchannels. The microchannels were characterized by fluorescence mapping and electroosmotic flow (EOF) measurements. Experimental results demonstrated that different fabrication and channel treatment protocols resulted in different EOF rates. Laser-ablated channels had similar EOF rates (5.3+/-0.3 x 10(-4) cm(2)/Vs and 5.6+/-0.4 x 10(-4) cm(2)/Vs) to hydrolyzed imprinted channels (5.1+/-0.4 x 10(-4) cm(2)/Vs), which in turn demonstrated a somewhat higher flow rate than imprinted PETG channels that were not hydrolyzed (3.5+/-0.3 x 10(-4) cm(2)/Vs). Laser-ablated channels that had been chemically modified to yield amines displayed an EOF rate of 3.38+/- 0.1 x 10(-4) cm(2)/Vs and hydrolyzed imprinted channels that had been chemically derivatized to yield amines showed an EOF rate of 2.67+/-0.6 cm(2)/Vs. These data demonstrate that surface-bound carboxylate species can be used as a template for further chemical reactions in addition to changing the EOF mobility within microchannels.     

Clotting Activity of Polyphosphate‐Functionalized Silica Nanoparticles

We present a silica nanoparticle (SNP) functionalized with polyphosphate (polyP) that accelerates the natural clotting process of the body. SNPs initiate the contact pathway of the blood‐clotting system; short‐chain polyP accelerates the common pathway by the rapid formation of thrombin, which enhances the overall blood‐clotting system, both by accelerating fibrin generation and by facilitating the regulatory anticoagulation mechanisms essential for hemostasis. Analysis of the clotting properties of bare SNPs, bare polyP, and polyP‐functionalized SNPs in plasma demonstrated that the attachment of polyP to SNPs to form polyP‐SNPs creates a substantially enhanced synergistic effect that lowers clotting time and increases thrombin production at low concentrations. PolyP‐SNP even retains its clotting function at ambient temperature. The polyP‐SNP system has the potential to significantly improve trauma‐treatment protocols and outcomes in hospital and prehospital settings.     

Anticoagulant action of vanadate.

Sodium orthovanadate (vanadate) prolonged the clotting time of normal human plasma in a dose-dependent manner. The prolongation of clotting time by vanadate linearly decreased with an increase in the concentration of amiloride. Vanadate also was completely additive to prolongation by heparin. When factor Xa or thrombin was incubated with vanadate, the amidolytic activity of each decreased in a dose-dependent manner with vanadate. Amiloride protected the decrease of amidolytic activity of both factor Xa and thrombin by vanadate. The amidolytic activity of trypsin also was inhibited by vanadate, but that of alpha-chymotrypsin was not inhibited, suggesting that vanadate preferentially inhibits the amidolytic activity of trypsin and trypsin-like enzymes. These results show that vanadate prolongs the clotting time of plasma through mechanisms involving in part the inhibition of the activity of both factor Xa and thrombin.     

A novel class of small functional peptides that bind and inhibit human alpha-thrombin isolated by mRNA display

Here we report the in vitro selection of novel small peptide motifs that bind to human alpha-thrombin. We have applied mRNA display to select for thrombin binding peptides from an unbiased library of 1.2 x 10(11) different 35-mer peptides, each containing a random sequence of 15 amino acids. Two clones showed binding affinities ranging from 166 to 520 nM. A conserved motif of four amino acids, DPGR, was identified. Clot formation of human plasma is inhibited by the selected clones, and they downregulate the thrombin-mediated activation of protein C. The identified peptide motifs do not share primary sequence similarities to any of the known natural thrombin binding motifs. As new inhibitors for human thrombin open interesting possibilities in thrombosis research, our newly identified peptides may provide further insights into this field of investigation and may be possible candidates for the development of new anti-thrombotic agents.     

A study of some of the rheological properties of concentrated polystyrene latices

Monodisperse latices form highly ordered but liquid-like structured dispersions at moderate to high concentrations. The rheological measurements show such systems to be viscoelastic. Shear wave propagation and creep compliance measurements have been carried out as a function of volume fraction using polystyrene latices in dilute electrolyte. These measurements enabled the high frequency limiting modulus and the zero shear rate viscosity to be obtained.The data are compared with predictions from models based on the perturbation of ordered particle structures, the magnitude of the particle pair potentials and the restricted diffusive motion of particles in the structures.     

Fourier microfluidics

We present a new experimental technique for the separation of dynamic chemical signals based on their frequency domain characteristics. Such a technique can be used to create filters that separate slow signals from fast signals from a common input flow stream. The propagation of time-varying chemical waves through networks of microfluidic channels is first examined. Mathematical models and a set of simple experiments are developed that demonstrate that short microfluidic channels behave as linear delay lines. The observed dispersive broadening and delay behavior can be explained in Fourier space in terms of corresponding phase delay, amplitude decay and characteristic transfer functions. Such delay components can be utilized to implement frequency dependent interference filters. An 8th order PDMS bandpass filter chip demonstrating these ideas was constructed. The filter chip has a central frequency of 0.17 Hz and a bandwith of 0.04 Hz at a flow rate of 4 microL h(-1).     

The growth of shear bands in polystyrene

Shear-band growth velocities have been determined as a function of stress and temperature in polystyrene. The results demonstrate that shear bands can propagate under isothermal conditions; an adiabatic temperature rise at the shear band tip is not necessary for continued localization and growth of the band. The velocity is stress activated with a shear activation volume of 4600 ų and thermally activated with an activation enthalpy of 2.8 eV. Comparison of these values of the activation parameters with those for bulk shear flow in polystyrene indicates that the shear band propagation is controlled by the plastic strain rate of the glassy polymer immediately ahead of the tip of the band. Argon's molecular kink model of the elemental deformation process is consistent with measured values of the activation parameters whereas Bowden and Raha's dislocation model is not. The shear bands grow at an angle of ca. 38° to the axis of compression, and if the direction of compression is altered, the shear bands will change direction so as to maintain the 38° angle. Current explanations can not quantitatively account for the large deviation of the shear bands from the 45° plane of maximum shear stress.     

Light regulation of aptamer activity: an anti-thrombin aptamer with caged thymidine nucleobases

"Caged" derivatives of a 15 nucleotide ssDNA anti-thrombin aptamer have been synthesized in which thymidine nucleotides are modified with photolabile protecting groups. One caged thymidine in a key location is enough to completely mask the aptamer's function in respect to their affinity for thrombin and their inhibition of the blood clotting cascade. With light (366 nm) the caging group can be removed, yielding the unmodified active aptamer.     

Adaptive silver films for detection of antibody-antigen binding

Antibody-antigen binding events at a monolayer protein concentration have been demonstrated on nanostructured adaptive silver films (ASFs) using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and luminescence-based assays. It is shown that proteins stabilize and restructure the ASF to increase the SERS signal while preserving antigen-binding activity. Evidence for antibody-antigen binding on the ASF substrates is the distinct SERS spectral changes of the surface-bound antibody or antigen without special tags. The activity of the surface-bound proteins and their practical application are validated by independent immunochemical assays. Results are presented to demonstrate that these surfaces can be extended to protein arrays with detection applications distinct from current SERS, fluorescence, or luminescence methods.     

PHOTOCOAGULATION OF HUMAN PLASMA: ACYL SERINE PROTEINASE PHOTOCHEMISTRY

Human alpha-thrombin or bovine Factor Xa was acylated at the active site serine hydroxyl with alpha-methyl-2-hydroxy-4-diethylaminocinnamic acid. These modified serine proteinase enzymes showed no plasma coagulation biological activity in the absence of light. Photolysis of the acyl serine proteinase enzymes in plasma for 1-35 s with monochromatic 366 nm light isolated from a high pressure mercury arc results in coagulation of the plasma. For example, photolysis of 3 NIH U of the acyl human alpha-thrombin for 5 s in human plasma results in a clot in 23 s. For comparison, 1 NIH U of unmodified human alpha-thrombin gave a clot in 21 s under the conditions of the assay but without photolysis. Appropriate controls showed that the coagulation is the result of the formation of active thrombin due to photodeacylation of the enzymes. The photoinduced clotting time measured is dependent on acyl thrombin concentration and photolysis time. Thus higher concentrations of acyl thrombin and longer photolysis times give a shorter clotting time. A kinetic scheme based upon Lineweaver-Burke analysis of the clotting process is developed.     

Biomimetic design of microfluidic manifolds based on a generalised Murray's law

The relationship governing the optimum ratio between the diameters of the parent and daughter branches in vascular systems was first discovered by Murray using the principle of minimum work. This relationship is now known as Murray's law and states that the cube of the diameter of the parent vessel must equal the sum of the cubes of the daughter vessels. For symmetric bifurcations, an important consequence of this geometric rule is that the tangential shear stress at the wall remains constant throughout the vascular network. In the present paper, we extend this important hydrodynamic concept to arbitrary cross-sections and provide a framework for constructing a simple but elegant biomimetic design rule for hierarchical microfluidic networks. The paper focuses specifically on constant-depth rectangular and trapezoidal channels often employed in lab-on-a-chip systems. To validate our biomimetic design rule and demonstrate the application of Murray's law to microfluidic manifolds, a comprehensive series of computational fluid dynamics simulations have been performed. The numerical predictions are shown to be in very good agreement with the theoretical analysis, confirming that the generalised version of Murray's law can be successfully applied to the design of constant-depth microfluidic devices.     

Amino acids and peptides. XIII. Synthetic studies on N-terminal tripeptide amide analogs of fibrin alpha-chain

N-Terminal tripeptide analogs of fibrin alpha-chain were synthesized and their inhibitory effect on fibrinogen/thrombin clotting was examined. A new water-soluble active ester, 3-pyridinium ester, was used for the synthesis. Among the synthetic peptides, H-Gly-Pro-Arg-hexamethyleneimine exhibited the highest inhibitory effect on fibrinogen-thrombin clotting.     

Use of a laminar flow chamber to study the rate of bond formation and dissociation between surface-bound adhesion molecules: effect of applied force and distance between surfaces

It has recently been shown that much information on the behaviour of surface-bound adhesion molecules could be obtained by monitoring the motion of receptor-coated particles along ligand-derivatized surfaces in the presence of a hydrodynamic force of a few pN. This procedure is expected to allow direct monitoring of the formation and dissociation of individual bonds. We present experimental results on the interaction between streptavidin-coated spheres (1.4 microns diameter) and control or biotinylated mica surfaces in a laminar flow chamber. Moving spheres are found to display numerous arrests whose frequency is markedly increased (5-13-fold) in the presence of biotin groups. For a given shear rate, the binding frequency is strongly dependent on the sphere-surface separation. Indeed, this frequency displayed a 14-fold decrease when the velocity increased from 7 to 15 microns s-1 for a wall shear rate of 20 s-1. Furthermore, the lifetime of observed arrests was of the order of several seconds, i.e. 5-50-fold higher than previously determined on models such as selectin-ligand, CD2-CD48 or cadherin-cadherin. Finally, this lifetime did not decrease when the wall shear rate was increased from ca. 10 to 40 s-1.