Study On A Novel Fibrinolytic Enzyme From A Marine Animal

Thrombotic disease is the leading cause of human death in western affluent countries, which mainly damages the blood systems of heart, brain, and lung, resulting in human death and disability in adult population. In the United States, pulmonary embolism is a prevalent condition with approximately 600,000 patients affected, and there were as many as 200,000 deaths each year;approximately 1 million people per year experience acute myocardial infarction, and more than 200,000 people have been enrolled into clinical trials examining different reperfusion strategies. In China, 2000,000 people die of cardio-cerebrovascular disease each year, and more than 3000,000 people carry out thrombolytic therapy. The patients with thrombotic disease are increasingly increased so far.Thrombolytic therapy is the most important pathway in treatment of thrombotic disease. There are all three generations of thrombolytic agent, but more or less side effects are present in each of them. For this reason, a novel fibrinolytic enzyme is investigated and isolated from a marine invertebrate, Urechis unicinctus, in this paper. The main achievements in our investigations are now showed as follows.1.The fibrinolytic enzyme abounds in the haemocoelomic fluid and gut tissues of Urechis unicinctus, which isolation and purification include several steps. Mixture of haemocoelomic fluid and gut tissues was minced and extracted with PBS, then isolated with (NH₄)₂SO₄ precipitation and ultrafiltration, and purified by using of Q.Sepharose Fast Flow, Sephadex G-75, and Sephacry S-100 respectively, and finally obtained the pure enzyme. By use of all these procedures, the fibrinolytic enzyme of...