Grant: Project Grant

Platelets are small cells in the blood that help control bleeding. Heparin is a blood thinner (anticoagulant) used in heart surgery and to manage heart attacks and strokes. Patients receiving heparin may have an allergic-type reaction called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia resulting in low platelets (thrombocytopenia) and can also develop severe clotting causing loss of limbs, heart attacks, stroke and death. So this drug (heparin) that usually helps patients can actually cause more strokes and heart attacks in some patients. In HIT, some patients develop attack proteins (antibodies) once they are given heparin which attack platelets. However, other antibodies appear similar but do not attack platelets. Testing if people have HIT is a major problem because most tests cannot tell the difference between the dangerous antibodies and the antibodies that do not cause HIT. Our first goal is to study the antibodies that cause the disease in HIT patients and what separates them from other antibodies who do not get the disease. Our second goal is to use the information regarding specific characteristics of antibodies to make tests more efficient and accurate. In addition, we will identify drugs that can interfere with the disease-causing proteins and stop them from causing HIT due to the use of heparin. Our group has hundreds of frozen blood samples from patients who received heparin since we are a test centre for many hospitals across Canada. Once we understand why some patients get HIT and others do not, we will be able to provide better tests, resulting in better patient care for many Canadians at risk of getting this disorder.