Diverse origins of fibrinolytic enzymes: A comprehensive review

Author: mycolabadmin
2/22/2024
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Summary

Blood clots can cause heart attacks and strokes, which are major causes of death worldwide. Currently used clot-dissolving drugs have significant drawbacks including short effectiveness periods and side effects. This review examines how fibrinolytic enzymes—naturally occurring proteins that dissolve blood clots—can be obtained from various sources, especially fermented foods like Japanese natto. These enzymes show promise as safer, cheaper alternatives that could be produced in large quantities for treating cardiovascular diseases.

Background

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of global mortality, with thrombosis being a major contributor to conditions like myocardial infarction and stroke. Current thrombolytic drugs have limitations including short half-life, non-specific fibrin degradation, and significant side effects. Fibrinolytic enzymes offer an alternative approach with higher specificity for fibrin and potential for safer, cost-effective production from various sources.

Objective

This comprehensive review examines diverse origins of fibrinolytic enzymes from both food and non-food sources, including microbial and non-microbial sources. The review aims to classify fibrinolytic enzymes by their mechanisms, discuss current thrombolytic drugs, and highlight the advantages of fermented food sources as platforms for discovering novel fibrinolytic enzymes with therapeutic potential.

Results

The review identifies fibrinolytic enzymes from diverse sources including fermented foods (natto, chungkook-jang), non-fermented foods (mushrooms), soil microbes, marine organisms, plants, snake venom, and earthworms. Microbial enzymes from fermented food sources demonstrate superior characteristics: high substrate specificity, low production costs, high yield potential, and reduced toxicity compared to non-food sources which often exhibit low specificity and immunogenicity concerns.

Conclusion

Fermented food sources, particularly from Asian traditional foods, represent promising platforms for discovering novel fibrinolytic enzymes with therapeutic potential. The review emphasizes the need for expanded research into fermented foods from non-Asian regions and highlights the importance of source selection in developing safe, effective, and economically viable fibrinolytic therapeutics for treating cardiovascular diseases.

Published in:Heliyon,
Study Type:Review,
Source: PMID: 38434287