Summary
Antibodies (inhibitors and non-neutralising antibodies [NNA]) directed against factor
VIII (FVIII) remain the main iatrogenic complication in haemophilia A (HA) patients.
Inhibitors reduce FVIII procoagulant properties, whereas NNA are directed against
non-functional epitopes. NNA are poorly studied and their prevalence, epitope specificity
and physiopathology inadequately defined. The aim of this study was first to evaluate
NNA prevalence in a French retrospective multicentric series of 210 patients without
inhibitors, then to determine their epitope specificity (against the heavy chain [HC]
or the light chain [LC] of FVIII) and particularly to assess the prevalence of anti-B
domain NNA using specifically designed x-MAP assays. NNA occurred in 18.1% of patients
(38/210) and their prevalence was not influenced by the severity of the disease. Among
the 38 patients with NNA, 73.7% had anti-FVIII Abs against the HC, 13.2% against the
LC and 13.2% had anti-FVIII Abs against both chains. There is thus a clear immuno-dominance
of the HC of FVIII in the epitope profile of NNA, whatever the severity of HA. The
proportion of NNA that recognised the B domain was 18.4% (n=7/38). A multivariate
analysis did not highlight differences in NNA occurrence between patients treated
with recombinant FVIII or with plasma-derived FVIII (19.6% vs. 14.9%, p=0.53).
Keywords
Haemophilia A - factor VIII - x-MAP technology - non-neutralising antibodies - epitope
mapping