Another drug made from " E . carinatus " venom is called " ecarin " and is the primary reagent in the ecarin clotting time ( ECT ) test, which is used to monitor anticoagulation during treatment with hirudin.
32.
Outstanding structures are those of procarboxypeptidase, which led to the discovery of the remarkable activation mechanism of this enzyme, and of the complex of thrombin with hirudin, which showed the molecular mechanism of inhibition of blood clotting by this leech toxin.
33.
The three studies found that among those receiving either heparin or hirudin with streptokinase or TPA there was " definitive evidence of a catastrophic bleeding complication " that was about twice the expected rate, the heart association said in a news release.
34.
This has led to the development and marketing of a number of hirudin-based anticoagulant pharmaceutical products, such as lepirudin ( Refludan ), hirudin derived from " Hansenula " ( Thrombexx, Extrauma ) and desirudin ( Revasc / Iprivask ).
35.
This has led to the development and marketing of a number of hirudin-based anticoagulant pharmaceutical products, such as lepirudin ( Refludan ), hirudin derived from " Hansenula " ( Thrombexx, Extrauma ) and desirudin ( Revasc / Iprivask ).
36.
The leech's natural anticoagulant, hirudin, keeps blood flowing for the 20 to 40 minutes it takes to feed, during which time the leech's body weight may increase 10 times, reaching up to 60 grams ( about two ounces ).
37.
Beyond these two proteins, other notable protein substrates include Cholecystokinin ( CCK ), Factor V and Factor VIII, gastrin, the leech enzyme hirudin, fibrinogen, Complement component 4, follicle-stimulating hormone receptor ( FSHR ), and other chemokine and G-protein coupled receptors.
38.
In the study headed by Dr . Eugene Braunwald and Dr . Elliott M . Antman of Harvard Medical School in Boston, 6 of 345, or 1.7 percent of those receiving hirudin and 7 of 368, or 1.9 percent of patients receiving heparin, suffered strokes from bleeding.
39.
During his years in Birmingham and Edinburgh, Haycraft had been actively engaged in research and published papers on the coagulation of blood and in 1884, he discovered that the leech secreted a powerful anticoagulant, which he named hirudin, although it was not isolated until the 1950s, nor its structure fully determined until 1976.
40.
Officials at the FDA, which had approved the studies, said their focus in reviewing the findings of the three studies was on hirudin because it was the experimental drug being compared with the standard one, heparin, and that they approved resumption of the hirudin trials because they did not want to inhibit research progress of a potentially important drug.
