hirudin
Sign in to saveHirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as Hirudo medicinalis) that has a blood anticoagulant property. This is essential for the leeches' habit of feeding on blood, since it keeps a host's blood flowing after the worm's initial puncture of the skin.
Key facts
- Protein family.Symbol
- Hirudin
- Protein family.Name
- Hirudin
- Protein family.image
- Image:Hirudin in complex with thrombin.png
- Protein family.caption
- Structure of hirudin (ball-stick model) in complex with thrombin (ribbon model).
- Protein family.Pfam
- PF00713
- Protein family.InterPro
- IPR000429
- Protein family.SCOP
- 4htc
- Nonhuman protein.Name
- Hirudin variant-1
- Nonhuman protein.UniProt
- P01050
- Nonhuman protein.Organism
- Hirudo medicinalis
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Wikidata facts
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- Commons category
- Hirudin
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Article
6 sectionsContents
- Structure
- Biological activity
- Medical use
- See also
- References
- External links
Hirudin is a naturally occurring peptide in the salivary glands of blood-sucking leeches (such as Hirudo medicinalis) that has a blood anticoagulant property. This is essential for the leeches' habit of feeding on blood, since it keeps a host's blood flowing after the worm's initial puncture of the skin.
Hirudin (MEROPS I14.001) belongs to a superfamily (MEROPS IM) of protease inhibitors that also includes haemadin (MEROPS I14.002) and antistasin (MEROPS I15).