Heparin has been recognized as a valuable anticoagulant and antithrombotic for several decades and is still widely used in clinical practice for a variety of indications. The anticoagulant activity of heparin is mainly attributable to the action of a specific pentasaccharide sequence that acts in concert with antithrombin, a plasma coagulation factor inhibitor. This observation has led to the development of synthetic heparin mimetics for clinical use. However, it is increasingly recognized that heparin has many other pharmacological properties, including but not limited to antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antimetastatic actions. Many of these activities are independent of its anticoagulant activity, although the mechanisms of these other activities are currently less well defined. Nonetheless, heparin is being exploited for clinical uses beyond anticoagulation and developed for a wide range of clinical disorders. This article provides a "state of the art" review of our current understanding of the pharmacology of heparin and related drugs and an overview of the status of development of such drugs.

中文翻译：

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肝素及相关药物的药理学。

肝素几十年来一直被认为是有价值的抗凝剂和抗血栓形成剂，并且在临床实践中仍被广泛用于各种适应症。肝素的抗凝血活性主要归因于与血浆凝血因子抑制剂抗凝血酶协同作用的特定五糖序列的作用。该观察结果导致了用于临床的合成肝素模拟物的开发。然而，人们日益认识到，肝素具有许多其他药理特性，包括但不限于抗病毒，抗炎和抗转移作用。尽管目前尚不清楚这些其他活动的机制，但其中许多活动都与其抗凝活性无关。尽管如此，肝素已被开发用于抗凝以外的临床用途，并已开发用于多种临床疾病。本文提供了对肝素和相关药物的药理学目前了解的“最新技术”综述，并概述了此类药物的开发状况。