title: Alteration of blood clotting and lung damage by protamine are avoided using the heparin and polyphosphate inhibitor UHRA.
abstract: Anticoagulant therapy-associated bleeding and pathological thrombosis pose serious risks to hospitalized patients. Both complications could be mitigated by developing new therapeutics that safely neutralize anticoagulant activity and inhibit activators of the intrinsic blood clotting pathway, such as polyphosphate (polyP) and extracellular nucleic acids. The latter strategy could reduce the use of anticoagulants, potentially decreasing bleeding events. However, previously described cationic inhibitors of polyP and extracellular nucleic acids exhibit both nonspecific binding and adverse effects on blood clotting that limit their use. Indeed, the polycation used to counteract heparin-associated bleeding in surgical settings, protamine, exhibits adverse effects. To address these clinical shortcomings, we developed a synthetic polycation, Universal Heparin Reversal Agent (UHRA), which is nontoxic and can neutralize the anticoagulant activity of heparins and the prothrombotic activity of polyP. Sharply contrasting protamine, we show that UHRA does not interact with fibrinogen, affect fibrin polymerization during clot formation, or abrogate plasma clotting. Using scanning electron microscopy, confocal microscopy, and clot lysis assays, we confirm that UHRA does not incorporate into clots, and that clots are stable with normal fibrin morphology. Conversely, protamine binds to the fibrin clot, which could explain how protamine instigates clot lysis and increases bleeding after surgery. Finally, studies in mice reveal that UHRA reverses heparin anticoagulant activity without the lung injury seen with protamine. The data presented here illustrate that UHRA could be safely used as an antidote during adverse therapeutic modulation of hemostasis.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
authors.forename: Manu Thomas
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5374-7114
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Kalathottukaren
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and.
authors.forename: Libin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Piyushkumar R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Kapopara
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
authors.forename: Benjamin F L
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
authors.forename: Rajesh A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Shenoi
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.
authors.forename: Federico I
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Rosell
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Edward M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.|Centre for Innovation, Canadian Blood Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Edward L G
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Pryzdial
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL; and.
authors.forename: James H
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1570-1569
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Morrissey
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and.
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.affiliation: Centre for Blood Research.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.|Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Jayachandran N
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7688-7574
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Kizhakkedathu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000009:adverse effects; D000931:Antidotes / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001777:Blood Coagulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006493:Heparin / Q000009:adverse effects; D006494:Heparin Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice; D011073:Polyamines; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D011479:Protamines / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D000931:Antidotes; D006493:Heparin; D006494:Heparin Antagonists; D011073:Polyamines; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D011479:Protamines