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Thrombin inhibitor from the salivary gland of the camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii

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Abstract

Blood-sucking arthropods have different types of anticoagulants to allow the ingestion of a blood meal from their hosts. In this study, five anticoagulants prolonging the activated partial thromboplastin time were resolved from the salivary gland crude extract of the camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii by chromatography on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-cellulose column. They were designated P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5 according to their elution order. P5 was found to be a potent thrombin inhibitor and purified by ultrafiltration through two centrifugal concentrators of 50 and 30 kDa molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), respectively. The camel tick salivary gland thrombin inhibitor was purified 60.6 folds with a specific activity of 564 units/mg protein. It turned out to be homogenous on native-PAGE with molecular weight of 36 kDa as detected on 12% SDS-PAGE. It inhibits bovine thrombin competitively with K i value of 0.55 μM. A task for the future will be the elucidation of this thrombin inhibitor structure to allow its application in thrombosis treatment.

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Abbreviations

APTT:

Activated partial thromboplastin time

BSA:

Bovine serum albumin

DEAE:

Diethylaminoethyl

EGTA:

Ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid

FXa:

Activated factor X

MWCO:

Molecular weight cut-off

PT:

Prothrombin time

SBTI:

Soybean trypsin inhibitor

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Research Centre, Egypt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Biology Department, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth St. (former El Tahrir St.), Dokki, P.O. 12622, Giza, Egypt

    Mahmoud A. Ibrahim & Hassan M. M. Masoud

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  1. Mahmoud A. Ibrahim
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  2. Hassan M. M. Masoud
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Correspondence to Hassan M. M. Masoud.

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Ibrahim, M.A., Masoud, H.M.M. Thrombin inhibitor from the salivary gland of the camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii . Exp Appl Acarol 74, 85–97 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-017-0196-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-017-0196-9

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