Improved intracellular processing of protein variants as a personalized therapeutic approach for Haemophilia

Severe bleeding disorders such as Haemophilia B are mainly caused by missense mutations that may affect protein folding, thus leading to the production of structurally-altered proteins associated with low or very low circulating levels. The research activity was aimed at characterizing the mechanism underlying the defective intracellular biosynthesis (misfolding), premature degradation and/or stress of the endoplasmic reticulum in cellular models of sever Haemophilia B and to evaluate the effects of small molecules or drugs acting as chemical/pharmacological chaperones in restoring the molecular defect. Reference: Pignani S, Todaro A, Ferrarese M, Marchi S, Lombardi S, Balestra D, Pinton P, Bernardi F, Pinotti M, Branchini A. The chaperone-like sodium phenylbutyrate improves factor IX intracellular trafficking and activity impaired by the frequent p.R294Q mutation. J Thromb Haemost. 2018 Oct;16(10):2035-2043.