Leech thrombin inhibitors.

Serine proteases (SP), such as thrombin, factor Xa, elastase, trypsin are implicated in many clinical disorders such as emphysema, arthritis and cardiovascular diseases. These enzymes, in normal physiological conditions, are regulated by naturally occurring serine protease inhibitors, such as anti-thrombin III involved in thromb in inhibition. Primitive parasitic invertebrates have co-evolved highly specific mechanisms to communicate with their hosts for survival purposes, by blocking host processes such as blood coagulation. Thus a battery of new powerful molecules from blood-sucker animals acting at different points of the coagulation cascade such like factor Xa, thrombin, platelets aggregation inhibitors have been isolated and are now at a clinical level. In this review, we focus our attention on thrombin inhitors.