What is the use of crab blood in the corona virus vaccine?
10-eyed Horseshoe crabs have been living on Earth for nearly 300 million years. For years, the blue blood of his body has been used to make medicines for humans. Horseshoe crab means horseshoe crab.
In the midst of the corona epidemic, these crab have now become the cause of scientific interest.
Scientists are researching this crab to make a possible vaccine for the corona virus.
But due to this, there has been a threat regarding the existence of these crabs, which are considered living fossils. It is believed that the number of crabs of this species on earth is small and the use of its blood for medicine may reduce the number of them.
How can you get help with crabs?
The blood of these crabs is considered important because it helps to ensure that no harmful bacteria are present in the newly created medicine.
Blood cells (blood cells) derived from the blood of crab chemically react to the harmful elements present in the medicine and in this way scientists know whether the new drugs are safe for humans.
The biggest difficulty is that horseshoe crab is the only organism found on earth that is used in such testing.
Every year thousands of Horseshoe crabs are caught and sent to the labs in the US where medicines are made. Here blood is extracted from the tube near his heart. They are then released back into the water.
‘No one knows about its effect on crabs’
In fact, the first people believed that they remain alive even after taking the blood out of the crab’s body.
But in recent years, research has found that if 30 percent of the blood is removed from their body, then they can die.
At the same time, other studies have shown that once the blood is removed from the body, the reproductive power of female crabs decreases.
Wildlife campers believe that this is the basic problem.
Millions of horseshoe crabs are caught in New Jersey, USA, to help in research. Doctor Barbara Brummer, who is heading the team working for environmental protection here, says, “Speaking of now, about 5 million crabs are killed for this work.”
“The crabs are left alive after the blood is removed, but no one really knows how much and what effect this process has on them.”
The number of American horseshoe crabs is very small and they are very close to being officially classified as endangered.
But some big pharmaceutical companies say that the statistics related to the number of crabs show that their number has not decreased in the last few years.
Can their use be stopped?
Can any other man-made thing be used for research instead of crab blood in medicine? Research on this has been going on for years.
A breakthrough was achieved in the year 2016.
Scientists found an alternative to crab blood, the use of which was also approved in Europe. Some pharmaceutical companies of America also joined this campaign.
But why debate this today?
The decision-making organization in the US about the safety of drugs said last month that it could not confirm whether the choice of Horseshoe crab blood was effective.
After this, companies who want to sell drugs in America have been told that Horseshoe crab blood will have to be used in their testing for the safety of medicines.
This means that if a company makes a corona virus vaccine and wants to spread it to millions of people in the United States, then it will have to test the vaccine in the old way.
Doctor Barbara says that it is his effort to convince the government to reconsider this rule. She says that horseshoe crab alternatives are being used in other places and this can be done here too.
“It will also reduce our dependence on natural resources,” she says.
On this issue, some pharmaceutical companies say that they have enough stock of Horseshoe crab blood to test it according to the vaccine of Kovid-19 and they will no longer have to extract blood from other Horseshoe crabs.
Doctor Barbara says, “At least 30 companies are involved in making the vaccine for Corona. All will have to go through the same process for testing the vaccine.” “I am concerned that this may have an impact on the Horseshoe crab population and is an important part of the environment.”
