Study of Protein Components of Fish Skin Mucus with Thrombogenic Activity

Abstract

One of the promising directions in modern pharmacology is the creation of biologically active drugs based on substances of natural origin. Of particular interest in this regard are peptides of fish skin mucus. The aim of the work was to purify and isolate the protein fractions—thromboplastin (clotting factor III, tissue factor, TF) and prothromboplastin (clotting factor XI, F11) from fish skin mucus using affine and ion-exchange chromatography as well as mass spectrometry. The mucus of two fish species was used as the material for the study: the African clarias catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell, 1822) and the carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio Linnaeus, 1758). Among the identified proteins, it was not possible to find proteins that have similar or highly homologous amino acid sequences with human thromboplastin and prothromboplastin. However, given the ability of fish skin mucus to stimulate coagulation, as well as the ability of individual fractions to interact with antibodies to thromboplastin and prothromboplastin, it can be argued that the identified proteins have epitopes that are homologous in function to thromboplastin or prothromboplastin, thanks to which components of fish skin mucus can reduce the time of coagulation.