Nature's bacterial detector
Horseshoe crabs for modern medicine
Article by : Klesti Dumani , Alessandro Maggi , Antonio Vinciguerra
Horseshoe crabs, they've been our saviours for decades yet only a small percentage of our world-wide community is even aware of their existence or fundamental importance , so to understand their importance and role in our own existance as humans, we'll talk about their function in modern medicine and vaccines, but first of all let's obtain some general knowledge over the species.
What are they?
Despite the name, they have no relation to crabs, but
are fundamental marine arthropods for humanity. This species is located in the coasts of North
America and Mexico. The feature that they're considered to be so important for based on their
help in biomedicine, is their blue-ish blood , which gets it's color from the high copper levels in it.
It's a matter of blue blood
Their blood has been used since the 70s to detect external pathogens dangerous to our health in devices or products such as : needles, contact lenses, insulin, intravenous devices, COVID vaccines, in addition to normal flu vaccines. Freshly extracted from the sea water, our protagonists are taken to special laboratories where 30% of their blood gets donated and where, unfortnately, more than 40% of them end up dying.
If you walk in a hospital ward, you cannot take a step without encountering a number of substances and products that come into contact with the blood of patients. From anesthetics for surgery to painkillers, antibiotics and antivirals, fluids for hydration, vaccines, insulin for diabetics, chemotherapy drugs for cancer patients, but also contrast media for magnetic resonance imaging, tracers for PET, stents for the heart, pacemakers, prostheses for joints and cataracts: All these products have been tested for the presence of endotoxins with the substance extracted from the horseshoe crab. For all this security we must ensure that the horseshoe crabs give us, so to speak, a little of their blood every year
Light at the end of the tunnel
Nontheless,despte this grave importance of horseshoe crabs , we've somehow managed to get this species to be listed as an endangered one given our continious use of their blood for our vaccines. We exploit an endangered species and continue to do so for what is contained within their ''precious royal blood''. To obtain their blood, it is necessary to abuse 500,000 creatures a year, as reported by the Atlantic States Commission for Marine Fishing.
Their ecosystem is suffering heavily, but is there really no other way to save these vulnerable creatures?
Actually there is a way and was created recently (2021) that is the "PyroSmart NextGen™" This Recombinant LAL Cascade Reagent works exactly the same, but performs over all better then classic LAL reagent. Furthermore, it is animal free. PyroSmart NextGen™ can be used for a wide variety of endotoxin tests, ranging from standard water testing to samples requiring high sensitivity, such as intrathecal products and those requiring high dilutions to overcome interference. So not only would we not save the animals but in addition we could use it as a reagent and for vaccines in the future.
