For more than a century, heparin has been used as the go-to anticoagulant to prevent the formation and spread of harmful blood clots in blood vessels and the heart. However, the main side effect is an increased risk of excessive bleeding, even for minor injuries such as small cuts to the skin. In ACS Central Science, researchers report the discovery of a snail-derived compound that blocks blood clot formation while maintaining bleeding control in mouse models.
Blood clots are natural temporary bandages that seal wounds and stop bleeding. These helpful blood clots (called hemostatic clots) speed the healing of injuries such as skin cuts. However, a harmful type of blood clot called a thrombus can form inside blood vessels or the heart, blocking blood flow and causing severe pain and tissue damage. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs when these long-lasting blood clots form in the legs and don’t dissolve properly. If the blood clot breaks away and travels to other parts of the body, it can cause stroke, shortness of breath, and even death. Heparin and other blood thinners help prevent blood clots, but these anticoagulants also interfere with normal clotting (hemostasis) and increase the risk of excessive bleeding. So Mingyi Wu and colleagues looked for safer, naturally occurring anticoagulants that target only blood clot formation.
After analyzing a number of mollusc compounds, researchers identified CCG, a new glycosaminoglycan (a type of complex sugar), from the snail Camaena cicatricosa. Although some of the molecular structure of CCG is similar to heparin, CCG lacks the sugar sequence that heparin uses to bind to one of its binding partners. The researchers hypothesized that these differences might make CCG a safer anticoagulant.
In studies using human plasma, CCG inhibited clot formation and had no effect on hemostasis. In a mouse model of DVT, injected CCG also reduced the incidence of thrombotic DVT and, unlike heparin, did not increase bleeding risk. Further testing revealed that CCG interferes with the assembly of an enzyme (iFXase) that is active in clot formation but not in hemostasis.
Although more research is needed, these initial results suggest that this snail-derived compound could be developed as a safer anticoagulant compared to heparin, the authors say.
sauce:
american chemical society
Reference magazines:
Lin, L. Others. (2026) A snail-derived compound may be a safer anticoagulant compared to heparin. ACS Central Science. DOI: 10.1021/accentsci.5c02230. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/accentsci.5c02230
