Susan Shea։ VWF A1 Blockade Emerges as a Novel Strategy for Arterial Thrombosis
Susan Shea, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery at University of Pittsburgh, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article she and her colleagues co-authored, published in Communications Biology, adding:
”Very excited to share this work! New pub from my lab in Communications Biology: Von Willebrand factor A1 blockade prevents platelet-mediated sustained occlusion for the treatment of arterial thrombosis
We engineered a new microfluidic model capable of (1) simulating arterial occlusion, (2) allowing the thrombus to retract over a prolonged period in situ (up to 6 hours), and (3) inducing reperfusion without disturbing the thrombus, including a labeling strategy that allowed us to see new platelets arriving to the thrombus.
We found that blocking the VWF A1 – platelet GPIBα with the RNA aptamer BB-031 reduced continued recruitment of new platelets and restored channel patency more effectively than fibrinolytic strategies in our model. We recapitulated this ex vivo with samples from ischmemic stroke patients in collaboration with Shahid Nimjee and team.
I am especially proud of co-first authors Emily Mihalko and Ronit Kar (‘Papai’) whose incredible insights and images really drove this story forward. Very grateful to Blake Holthaus who led the ex vivo work at OSU, Rassam Rassam who intiated and refined the model design and was integral alongside Emily and Papai in completing many long experiment days, Riya Sharma, Deb Wheeler, and the Basking Biosciences, Inc. team who continue to be a delight to work with.”
Title: Von Willebrand factor A1 blockade prevents platelet-mediated sustained occlusion for the treatment of arterial thrombosis
Authors: Emily P. Mihalko, Ronit Kar, Blake Holthaus, Rassam M. G. Rassam, Riya Sharma, Debra Wheeler, Shahid M. Nimjee, Susan M. Shea
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