Effects of emicizumab on APTT, one-stage and chromogenic assays of factor VIII in artificially spiked plasma and in samples from haemophilia A patients with inhibitors

Introduction Emicizumab (Hemlibra, Roche-Chugai) is a recombinant humanized bispecific IgG4 antibody which mimics some of the actions of activated factor VIII (FVIIIa) by binding to factor X (FX) and activated factor IX (FIXa) to activate FX. Aim To evaluate the effect of emicizumab on the APTT, standard one-stage APTT-based FVIII activity assay (sOSA) using plasma calibrators, modified OSA (mOSA) using r(2) Diagnostics emicizumab specific calibrator and chromogenic FVIII assays. Tests were performed on plasma artificially spiked with emicizumab and from four severe haemophilia A (SHA) patients treated with emicizumab. Method APTT in spiked plasma was performed with 13 APTT reagents and in SHA patients with 5 reagents. OSA in spiked plasma was performed with 9 APTT reagents, 7 APTT reagents were used for OSA in SHA patients and six chromogenic substrate assays (CSA) were performed. Results In SHA, APTTs normalized after the first dose of emicizumab. At weeks 32/36 of treatment, the mean sOSA FVIII:C ranged from 2.47 IU/mL (Synthasil) to greater than 7.00 IU/mL with all other reagents. mOSA ranged from 59.8 mu g/mL (Synthasil) to 74.5 mu g/mL (APTT SP). Bovine CSA did not recover any FVIII:C activity. Hyphen Biomed human CSA, demonstrated FVIII activity when calibrated against a plasma calibrator. Conclusion The APTT was significantly shortened in the presence of emicizumab. sOSA FVIII:C levels were erroneously high, and it is not recommended that these be performed. Quantification of emicizumab concentration was possible by mOSA. Human CSA was sensitive to emicizumab and surrogate FVIII:C activity could be determined. Bovine CSA were insensitive to emicizumab and could not be used to quantify emicizumab concentration.