Researchers create safe, synthetic blood thinner

Researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., reported yesterday that they have developed the first fully synthetic heparin – the largest dose of heparin ever created in the lab.

Co-investigator Robert J. Linhardt, PhD, said he spent years stitching together minuscule carbohydrates to build a more pure and safer alternative to the commonly used and controversial blood thinner heparin. He got the opportunity to display his findings at the national conference of the American Chemical Society.

Linhardt, together with Jian Liu of the University of North Carolina, discovered the synthetic "recipe" for heparin in 2006, according to a press release. Since that time, he has worked to piece together the various molecules and grow a complex carbohydrate that is naturally created in the body in the lab.

The carbohydrate backbone for the new heparin comes from the bacteria E. coli. The use of the common and easily grown bacteria makes this version of heparin much easier and faster to produce, Linhardt said in the press release.

The team used a process called chemoenzymatic synthesis that used specialized synthetic chemicals and natural enzymes expressed in E. coli to replicate the normal biosynthesis of natural heparin within the cell.

The dose that Linhardt and his team were able to produce with this method was 1 million times higher than any other alternative created to date, according to the press release.

He will continue to work with his partners to take the milligram dose that they have developed and expand it to kilograms, Linhardt added.

"Ultimately, drug companies are going to need to produce tons of this drug to keep up with global demand," he said in the press release. "Such levels of productions are further down the road. We think that in 5 years, it is very possible that this drug could reach human clinical trials."

The milligram-scale synthesis of heparin will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.