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May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?

Saliva of hematophagous leeches (Hirudo sp.) contains bioactive proteins which allow the leech proper feeding and storage of ingested blood, but may also exert effects in the host. Leech therapy is used to treat many different ailments in humans, although only a small fraction of salivary proteins a...

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Autores principales: Lemke, Sarah, Müller, Christian, Lipke, Elisabeth, Uhl, Gabriele, Hildebrandt, Jan-Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073809
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author Lemke, Sarah
Müller, Christian
Lipke, Elisabeth
Uhl, Gabriele
Hildebrandt, Jan-Peter
author_facet Lemke, Sarah
Müller, Christian
Lipke, Elisabeth
Uhl, Gabriele
Hildebrandt, Jan-Peter
author_sort Lemke, Sarah
collection PubMed
description Saliva of hematophagous leeches (Hirudo sp.) contains bioactive proteins which allow the leech proper feeding and storage of ingested blood, but may also exert effects in the host. Leech therapy is used to treat many different ailments in humans, although only a small fraction of salivary proteins are characterized yet. Moreover, we do not know whether complete transfer of salivary proteins stored in the unicellular salivary glands in a leech to the host during feeding may generate concentrations that are sufficiently high to affect physiological processes in the host. Our 3D reconstruction of a portion of internal leech tissue from histological sections revealed that one leech contains approx. 37,000 salivary gland cells. Using tissue slices from pig liver and mouse skeletal muscle for reference, we obtained data for protein densities in leech salivary gland cells. As individual salivary cells are voluminous (67,000 µm(3)) and the stored proteins are densely packed (approx. 500 µg/mm(3)), we extrapolated that a single leech may contain up to 1.2 mg of salivary proteins. Analyzing protein extracts of unfed or fed leeches by 2D electrophoresis, we calculated the relative molar amounts of individual salivary proteins in the mass range of 17–60 kDa which may be released from a single leech during feeding. Distribution of these salivary proteins in the host (assumed plasma volume of 5 l) may result in concentrations of individual compounds between 3 and 236 pmol/l. Such concentrations seem sufficiently high to exert biochemical interactions with target molecules in the host.
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spelling pubmed-37767962013-09-20 May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host? Lemke, Sarah Müller, Christian Lipke, Elisabeth Uhl, Gabriele Hildebrandt, Jan-Peter PLoS One Research Article Saliva of hematophagous leeches (Hirudo sp.) contains bioactive proteins which allow the leech proper feeding and storage of ingested blood, but may also exert effects in the host. Leech therapy is used to treat many different ailments in humans, although only a small fraction of salivary proteins are characterized yet. Moreover, we do not know whether complete transfer of salivary proteins stored in the unicellular salivary glands in a leech to the host during feeding may generate concentrations that are sufficiently high to affect physiological processes in the host. Our 3D reconstruction of a portion of internal leech tissue from histological sections revealed that one leech contains approx. 37,000 salivary gland cells. Using tissue slices from pig liver and mouse skeletal muscle for reference, we obtained data for protein densities in leech salivary gland cells. As individual salivary cells are voluminous (67,000 µm(3)) and the stored proteins are densely packed (approx. 500 µg/mm(3)), we extrapolated that a single leech may contain up to 1.2 mg of salivary proteins. Analyzing protein extracts of unfed or fed leeches by 2D electrophoresis, we calculated the relative molar amounts of individual salivary proteins in the mass range of 17–60 kDa which may be released from a single leech during feeding. Distribution of these salivary proteins in the host (assumed plasma volume of 5 l) may result in concentrations of individual compounds between 3 and 236 pmol/l. Such concentrations seem sufficiently high to exert biochemical interactions with target molecules in the host. Public Library of Science 2013-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3776796/ /pubmed/24058492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073809 Text en © 2013 Lemke et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lemke, Sarah
Müller, Christian
Lipke, Elisabeth
Uhl, Gabriele
Hildebrandt, Jan-Peter
May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?
title May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?
title_full May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?
title_fullStr May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?
title_full_unstemmed May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?
title_short May Salivary Gland Secretory Proteins from Hematophagous Leeches (Hirudo verbana) Reach Pharmacologically Relevant Concentrations in the Vertebrate Host?
title_sort may salivary gland secretory proteins from hematophagous leeches (hirudo verbana) reach pharmacologically relevant concentrations in the vertebrate host?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3776796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24058492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073809
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