title: Identification of anticoagulant activities in the salivary glands of the soft tick, Ornithodoros savignyi.
abstract: Salivary gland extracts of the sand tampan, Ornithodoros savignyi, prolonged the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) significantly in a concentration-dependent manner. There was also a pronounced inhibition of human activated factor Xa (fXa) by salivary gland extracts. The salivary gland extracts inhibited chromogenic assays specific for both fXa and thrombin. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of the salivary gland proteins followed by elution of specific areas or bands from a polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)-membrane, showed that various anticoagulant factors are present when screened by means of the APTT assay. The most active component was associated with a band of M(r) of 14 kDa. Partial purification of this component was achieved using isoelectric focusing (IEF) and size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Crause
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Neitz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000378:metabolism*; D015951:Factor Xa / Q000378:metabolism; D065427:Factor Xa Inhibitors; D006801:Humans; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000378:metabolism; D013987:Ticks / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D065427:Factor Xa Inhibitors; D015951:Factor Xa