Antiphospholipid Syndrome Novel Therapies

• Main Authors: Mohamad Bittar, Imad Uthman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: European Medical Journal 2014-07-01
• Series: European Medical Journal Rheumatology
• Subjects: antiphospholipid antibodies; Antiphospholipid syndrome; immunomodulatory; New Oral Anticoagulants; seronegative antiphospholipid syndrome; thromboprophylaxis; thrombosis
• Online Access: http://emjreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/Antiphospholipid-Syndrome-Novel-Therapies.pdf

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disease characterised by arterial and/or venous thrombosis, recurrent pregnancy loss, and persistently positive antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs). It could be life-threatening as in the case of catastrophic APS where multi-organ failure is observed. APS morbidities are thought to be the result of a combination of thrombotic and inflammatory processes. Over the past decades, the mainstay of therapy of APS has been anticoagulation. As new mechanisms of pathogenesis are being unravelled with time, novel targeted immunomodulatory therapies are being proposed as promising agents in the treatment of APS. In this article, we present an overview of new pathogenetic mechanisms in APS as well as novel antithrombotic and immunomodulatory therapies.