Summary
Clotting factor VIII (fVIII)-inhibitory antibodies represent a major problem in the
treatment of haemophilia A. To understand the inactivation mechanisms and to pave
the way towards modifications of recombinant clotting factors that reduce their immunogenicity,
the exact localization of immunodominant epitopes is required. Here, a random peptide
phage display library was employed to identify epitopes of polyclonal fVIII antibodies
isolated from patient’s plasma by affinity chromatography. FVIIIbinding specificity
and inhibitory activity of the isolated fVIII antibodies were confirmed by ELISA and
Bethesda assays. Phage selection on the individual samples yielded several phages
which were displaced from binding to the respective antibody preparation by fVIII.
Their homology with amino acid motifs of human fVIII and immunoprecipitation results
with radioactively labelled fVIII fragments suggested putative epitopes in the A1,
A2 and C1 domains of fVIII for one and in the C2 domain for another patient. Synthetic
peptides corresponding to the A2, C1 and C2 domain epitopes blocked antibody binding
to fVIII and partially neutralized the inhibitory activity of the respective plasma
in Bethesda assays. These results provide the proof of principle that random peptide
libraries can be used for the mapping of epitopes in a polyclonal antibody preparation.
Keywords
Haemophilia - inhibitor - polyclonal antibodies - epitope mapping - phage display