Gene therapy for hemophilia A. Friend or foe?

Gene therapy for hemophilias: the end of phenotypic testing or the start of a new era?

: Hemophilia comprises two distinct genetic disorders caused by missing or defective clotting factor VIII (hemophilia A) or clotting factor IX (hemophilia B). The management of these conditions has been for long based on replacement therapies, but emerging evidence garnered from recent landmark studies suggests that a promising avenue toward routine use of gene therapy is clearly progressing forward, thus generating unavoidable consequences on laboratory hemostasis, especially as pertaining to phenotypic testing. Although it seems likely that widespread use of gene therapy will be associated with a relative decrease of hemostasis tests requests in this patient population due to the relatively stable effect of transgene delivery and persistent production of endogenous clotting factor, some important aspects persuade us that conventional laboratory diagnostics, especially encompassing activated partial thromboplastin time, as well as one-stage and two-stage clotting factor assays, will not be completely voided in the gene therapy era. In particular, phenotypic testing will remain essential for excluding acquired or sporadic cases of hemophilia, for identifying and titrating factor inhibitors, as well as for defining and monitoring the long-term therapeutic effectiveness of gene transfection in hemophiliacs.

Inherited disorders of blood coagulation

Hemostasis is traditionally defined as a physiological response to blood vessel injury and bleeding, which entails a co-ordinated process involving the blood vessel, platelets, and blood clotting proteins (i.e. coagulation factors). Hemostasis can be divided into primary and secondary components. The former rapidly initiates after endothelial damage and is characterized by vascular contraction, platelet adhesion, and formation of a soft aggregate plug. The latter is initiated following the release of tissue factor and involves a complex sequence of events known as the blood coagulation cascade, encompassing serial steps where each coagulation factor activates another in a chain reaction that culminates in the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. Patients carrying abnormalities of the coagulation cascade (i.e. deficiencies of coagulation factors) have an increased bleeding tendency, where the clinical severity is mostly dependent upon the type and the plasma level of the factor affected. These disorders also impose a heavy medical and economic burden on individual patients and society in general. The aim of this article is to provide a general overview on the pathophysiology, clinics, diagnostics, and therapy of inherited disorders of coagulation factors.