Use of Protein-A column and porcine factor VIII

Haemophilia therapies

In the last few decades dramatic improvements in the management of haemophilia patients have occurred. Haemophilia has moved from a fatal or disabling disease to a hereditary disorder with available treatment and much better clinical outcomes. The safety of antihaemophilic factor concentrates has been dramatically improved and, in a multidisciplinary environment including haematologists, orthopaedic surgeons, paediatrics, infectiologists, specialised nurses and physiotherapists, complications related to haemophilia are now limited, markedly improving the quality of life of haemophiliacs. One can even think that the cure of haemophilia through gene therapy might occur in the next decades. Keeping this ultimate aim in mind, efforts at present are mainly focused on bioengineered Factor VIII/Factor IX concentrates with increased efficacy or longer half-life or decreased immunogenicity. In addition, several preclinical and clinical studies are being carried out for optimising and individually tailoring the therapeutic regimens of antihaemophilic therapies using global haemostasis tests in combination with the routine coagulation assays.

Immunoadsorption for coagulation factor inhibitors: a retrospective critical appraisal of 10 consecutive cases from a single institution

Immunoadsorption is occasionally used as an adjuvant measure in the treatment of subjects with coagulation factor inhibitors. We reviewed our recent 3-year period experience with this procedure in 10 subjects. Immunoadsorption was used in the context of an immune tolerance protocol for 3 subjects with severe congenital deficiency in factor VIII, IX, and XIII; it was effective in lowering the level of inhibitor but immune tolerance was not achieved. It allowed successful use of porcine factor VIII in 4 cases of acquired hemophilia and in one case of inhibitor in mild hemophilia A. This therapeutic approach seems to be more useful in acquired hemophilia than in severe congenital factor deficiencies with inhibitors.