Factor VIII (FVIII) antibodies in patients with non-severe (NSHA) and acquired haemophilia A (AHA) are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite differences in underlying immunological mechanism (allo v autoantibody) these antibodies have similar inactivation kinetics and cross-reactivity to endogenous FVIII, resulting in spontaneous bleeding. Previous data for the binding regions (epitopes) of these antibodies has described epitopes to the A1, A2 and C2 domains in AHA and to the region of the F8 mutation or at neo-epitopes sites in NSHA.  These descriptions have been at a domain based level and there no characterisation of amino-acid epitope sequences. We have presented data of sequence epitopes of FVIII antibodies in patients with severe haemophilia to regions of functional or structural significance using a high throughput peptide microarray.

This project aims to characterise amino acid sequence B-cell epitopes of FVIII antibodies in patients with non-severe haemophilia and acquired haemophilia A. We hypothesise that one of mechanisms of FVIII auto-reactivity results from common B-cell epitopes

Curriculum Vitae

Paul Batty is a National Institute for Health Research funded Clinical Lecturer at The Royal London Hospital Haemophilia Centre, Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry. He has a research interest in B-cell immunology investigating FVIII antibody formation, with an aim to improve understanding of immunological mechanisms and personalise care for patients with inhibitors.

He trained at the Royal Free and University College Medical School obtaining his medical degree in 2004. He completed a PhD in Immunobiology in 2016, investigating inhibitor formation in congenital and acquired haemophilia, supervised by Dr Dan Hart. During this time, he conducted work looking into inhibitor surveillance in non-severe haemophilia; inhibitor assay optimisation; epitope mapping of inhibitors in severe haemophilia and the application of genomic approaches for inhibitor prediction (RNA-Seq).

He was awarded the best oral presentation in the early-stage investigator class at the British Society for Haematology annual scientific meeting in 2014 and a young investigator award at the ISTH meeting in 2015. He has published articles on inhibitor testing, acquired haemophilia and treatment of the inherited bleeding disorders. He is actively involved in promotion of research and training in haemostasis and thrombosis and has contributed to establishing a national trainees conference and mentorship scheme.

Contact
Queen Mary University of London
Department of Immunobiology,
Blizard Institute, 4 Newark St,
Whitechapel, London E1 2A,
United Kingdom