The Actions of Leech Saliva Components and Their Mechanisms in Antitumor Activity

Abstract

Malignant tumor (hereinafter referred to as tumor) has become a major category of chronic diseases that curb human life and seriously threaten human health.For advanced tumors, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targetedtherapy and immunotherapy effects are still not satisfactory, and they are particularly urgent to find new therapeutic drugs.The medical leech therapy(MLT) can be traced back to the period of ancient Greece and ancient India for disease treatment.The discovery and appraisal of the leech saliva of hirudin aroused the research interest on the saliva of the lequale.Yet of the more than 100 compounds of different molecular weights detected in leech saliva, only a small fraction have been identified as having therapeutic potential.Studies have shown that the saliva activity ingredients have certain advantages in anti-tumor metastasis, which has attracted the attention of scholars.This article reviews the role of the active ingredients of the saliva and its anti-tumor mechanism in recent years, and provides a reference for the application of the leech saliva.