Frontiers in Immunology (Jun 2021)

Structure of Blood Coagulation Factor VIII in Complex With an Anti-C2 Domain Non-Classical, Pathogenic Antibody Inhibitor

  • Estelle K. Ronayne,
  • Shaun C. Peters,
  • Joseph S. Gish,
  • Celena Wilson,
  • H. Trent Spencer,
  • Christopher B. Doering,
  • Pete Lollar,
  • P. Clint Spiegel,
  • Kenneth C. Childers

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.697602
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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Factor VIII (fVIII) is a procoagulant protein that binds to activated factor IX (fIXa) on platelet surfaces to form the intrinsic tenase complex. Due to the high immunogenicity of fVIII, generation of antibody inhibitors is a common occurrence in patients during hemophilia A treatment and spontaneously occurs in acquired hemophilia A patients. Non-classical antibody inhibitors, which block fVIII activation by thrombin and formation of the tenase complex, are the most common anti-C2 domain pathogenic inhibitors in hemophilia A murine models and have been identified in patient plasmas. In this study, we report on the X-ray crystal structure of a B domain-deleted bioengineered fVIII bound to the non-classical antibody inhibitor, G99. While binding to G99 does not disrupt the overall domain architecture of fVIII, the C2 domain undergoes an ~8 Å translocation that is concomitant with breaking multiple domain-domain interactions. Analysis of normalized B-factor values revealed several solvent-exposed loops in the C1 and C2 domains which experience a decrease in thermal motion in the presence of inhibitory antibodies. These results enhance our understanding on the structural nature of binding non-classical inhibitors and provide a structural dynamics-based rationale for cooperativity between anti-C1 and anti-C2 domain inhibitors.

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