Current antithrombotic therapies for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disorders such as thrombosis, myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke present an associated risk of bleeding. The essential events leading to the formation of hemostatic clots are platelet activation and fibrin formation. When activated, the prostacyclin (IP) receptor prevents platelet aggregation in arteries and veins after injury.
The success of the treosulfan-based conditioning regimen in patients with β-thalassemia undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is limited due to several complications, such as mixed chimerism and graft rejection. Researchers previously found that polymorphisms in the NQO1 or glutathione S-transferase A1 (GSTA1) genes had an impact on treosulfan pharmacokinetics, which then impacted related toxicities after HCT.
Fifteen years ago, at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), researchers announced that they had cured a patient – Timothy Ray Brown, initially known only as the Berlin Patient to preserve his privacy – of HIV through a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Now, as researchers are gathered in Seattle for CROI 2023, reports of another cured patient were published Feb. 20, 2023, in Nature Medicine. Ten years after receiving a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, and 4 years after stopping antiretroviral treatment (ART), a 53-year-old patient may have been cured of HIV infection.
Undiagnosed bleeding disorders put people at risk due to bleeding without an optimal treatment strategy. Spanish researchers from the Hospital Universitario La Paz and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid have focused on the targeting of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) as a potential approach for this medical need by using TFPI blocker antibodies.
Gray platelet syndrome is an autosomal recessive platelet disorder characterized by macrothrombocytopenia and deficiency or decreased levels of alpha granules that confer a grayish appearance to the platelets. The genetic cause is located at chromosome locus 3p21, affecting the NBEAL2 gene.
Previous research has suggested that factor VIII (FVIII) can regulate the osteoprotegerin (OPG)/RANKL system, which appears to play a role in hemophilic arthropathy. Investigators have now aimed to measure the OPG levels in patients with hemophilia A/B and assess their correlation with the levels of FVIII/FIX.
Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) is a rare bleeding disorder caused by defects in the expression of platelet surface integrins, such as integrin alpha-IIb (GPIIb, encoded by ITGA2B).
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
“I think that we can clearly say now that atherosclerosis is a very clear autoimmune component. It is a multifactorial disease, a combination of genes, and lifestyle, but also inflammation and the immune system,” Ilze Bot and Bram Slütter, associate professors at the Division of Biotherapeutics of Leiden University, told BioWorld.