Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

A complex substitute: antibody therapy for hemophilia

Deficiency of the procoagulant cofactor factor VIII (FVIII) in hemophilia A is routinely treated by protein replacement therapy with plasma-derived or recombinant FVIII. Now, a humanized bispecific antibody has been demonstrated to perform the 'scaffold' function of FVIII and could potentially function as a FVIII substitute as a treatment for this inherited bleeding condition (pages 1570–1574).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A bispecific antibody therapy to restore cofactor activity in the intrinsic tenase complex in hemophilia A.

References

  1. World Federation of Hemophilia. World Federation of Hemophilia Report on the Annual Global Survey 2010. <http://www.wfh.org/en/page.aspx?pid=878> (2010).

  2. Bolton-Maggs, P.H. & Pasi, K.J. Lancet 361, 1801–1809 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Key, N.S. & Negrier, C. Lancet 370, 439–448 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Mei, B. et al. Blood 116, 270–279 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Powell, J.S. et al. Blood 119, 3031–3037 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kitazawa, T. et al. Nat. Med. 18, 1570–1574 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Nilsson, I.M., Berntorp, E., Lofqvist, T. & Pettersson, H. J. Intern. Med. 232, 25–32 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Manco-Johnson, M.J. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 357, 535–544 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Hay, C.R.M. et al. Blood 117, 6367–6370 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Astermark, J. et al. Blood 109, 546–551 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fay, P.J. Blood Rev. 18, 1–15 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. De Groot, A.S. & Moise, L. Curr. Opin. Drug Discov. Devel. 10, 332–340 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Lillicrap.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lillicrap, D. A complex substitute: antibody therapy for hemophilia. Nat Med 18, 1460–1461 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2959

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2959

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing