Patients suffering from von Willebrand disease (VWD) have reduced quality-of-life despite current treatment options. Moreover, innovation in VWD therapeutic strategies has essentially stalled and available treatments have remained unchanged for decades. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop new therapeutic strategies for VWD-patients, especially for the large portion of those with VWD-type 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Protein Z-dependent protease inhibitor (ZPI) is an anticoagulant serpin that targets factor Xa (FXa) in the presence of protein Z (PZ), and factor XIa (FXIa). In factor-VIII-deficient mice, PZ or ZPI gene knock-out mitigates the bleeding phenotype, and pharmacological inhibition of PZ enhances thrombin generation in plasma from patients with hemophilia.
Aims: To develop a single-domain antibody (sdAb) directed against ZPI to inhibit its anticoagulant activity.
Ensuring the safety of patient medication management is a public health priority. In hospitals, the medication circuit involves risks, especially in terms of storage. As part of an institutional project, the deployment of computerized medicine cabinets in our hospital's care units was initiated in 2015.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Emicizumab is a bispecific, chimeric, humanized immunoglobulin G (IgG)4 that mimics the procoagulant activity of factor (F) VIII (FVIII). Its long half-life and subcutaneous route of administration have been life-changing in treating patients with hemophilia A (HA) with or without FVIII inhibitors. However, emicizumab only partially mimics FVIII activity; it prevents but does not treat acute bleeds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Transplacental delivery of maternal immunoglobulin G (IgG) provides humoral protection during the first months of life until the newborn's immune system reaches maturity. The maternofetal interface has been exploited therapeutically to replace missing enzymes in the fetus, as shown in experimental mucopolysaccharidoses, or to shape adaptive immune repertoires during fetal development and induce tolerance to self-antigens or immunogenic therapeutic molecules.
Objectives: To investigate whether proteins that are administered to pregnant mice or endogenously present in their circulation may be delivered through the placenta.