Friday, October 28, 2011

Hemophilia Treatment

Engineers have recently found a way to re-engineer critical clotting proteins in hemophiliac patients. Hemophilia is a blood disorder in which clotting factors are missing from the patient's blood. This disease is known as the "Royal Disease" due to its history in Queen Victoria's descendants.

Royal Family Tree

Normal treatment usually involves intravenous replacement of clotting factors like XIa and VIIIa. However, this method of treatment is costly and does not always work. So, in response to this problem, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are testing clotting factor Xa as an additional treatment possibility for hemophiliacs.


The Clotting Cascade Pathway

References:
http://medgadget.com/2011/10/engineered-protein-shows-promise-as-new-hemophilia-treatment.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001564/

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