Sw. Hall et al., STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL ANTITHROMBOTICS - MODULATING THROMBINS PROCOAGULANT AND ANTICOAGULANT PROPERTIES, Cellular and molecular life sciences, 53(9), 1997, pp. 731-736
Thrombin is a serine proteinase that can interact with a large number
of diverse macromolecular substrates, which results in either a procoa
gulant or anticoagulant effect. These divergent properties are physiol
ogically regulated by the endogenous protein thrombomodulin. This revi
ew summarizes recent work on a variety of methods used to exploit the
allosteric nature of the enzyme. The procoagulant and anticoagulant fu
nctions of thrombin can be modulated by sodium binding, site-directed
mutagenesis, and a small synthetic molecule. Modulation of thrombin's
intrinsic properties represents a novel approach to the development of
unique antithrombotic agents.