Factor VIII activity assays are used to diagnose hemophilia A, to monitor treatment of these patients, to determine when inhibitory antibodies against factor VIII have developed, and to evaluate the activity of engineered pharmaceutical factor VIII products. Factor VIII activity has been measured with one and two-stage assays for more than fifty years. However, all existing assays have major shortcomings that are recognized by the FDA, the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis, and pharmaceutical companies. The major deficiencies that have been identified are: 1) Factor VIII activity levels do not predict the risk of bleeding in patients with inhibitory antibodies. The degree of inhibition in these assays is less than required to explain patient bleeding. 2) The assays are only accurate over a range of 1 - 100% of normal factor VIII activity, while values of 0.1 - 1% are also clinically important. 3) The different approved assays give discrepant values for recombinant pharmaceutical factor VIII products, with a range of 2-fold difference between assays. This can lead to clinically important differences in dosing of factor VIII products from one region to another with corresponding risk of thrombosis or bleeding.
The preliminary data identify an additional deficiency of commercial assays that has not been anticipated. Commercial one and two-stage assays may not detect some clinically significant inhibitor antibodies. Thus, the purpose of the proposed studies is to standardize and validate a platelet-based factor VIII activity assay with greater sensitivity to clinically important inhibitory antibodies.
