血小板缺乏性紫瘢症(Idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, ITP)是一種常見的血小板疾病，病人體內之抗血小板自體抗體會破壞血小板而使血小板數目減少。尋找人體中自然存在之血小板自體抗原的epitopes並了解自體抗體對血小板功能所產生的影 響，為設計研發嶄新之ITP治療方式不可或缺的工作。我們希望研發ITP之專一性療法，解決現有療法之缺點。本計劃為全程執行期限3年之第1年計畫。我們在第1年計畫中以人類血小板注射小白鼠，利用活體內之自然免疫與抗原呈現作用製造單株抗體(mAb)來篩選抗原性較強之血小板抗原。目前我們已經成功的篩選到一些可以分泌單株抗體的融合瘤細胞株。並正在確認這些抗體的特性。我們希望透過此方式在未來可以找尋自然存在於人體之血小板自體抗原，並於活體中分析其mAb對血小板破壞速率的影響。而最終之目的則是製造與血小板epitopes結構相似之anti-idiotype antibody (AIAbs)，抑制ITP病人自體抗體與血小板結合，以研發ITP之專一性療法。
ITP is a common disorder that autoantibodies against platelets can result in platelets destruction and ultimately thrombocytopenia. Patients receiving current ITP interventions must confront to the disadvantages, such as side effects caused by non-specific intervention, expensive, and relapse. Accordingly, it should be a great interest to develop an ITP treatment that exhibits the advantages of specificity, convenience, cost-effectiveness and free of major side effects. In this project, we hope to develop a specific intervention for ITP to tackle the existed difficulties in clinical treatment. The present study is a 3-year study project. In the first year of project, we have successfully obtained several hybridomas that secreted high titer of anti-human platelet antibodies. The characteristics of these clones are now under investigating. Ultimate purposes of this 3-year study project are to identify new platelet autoantigen(s), study the kinetics of in vivo platelet destruction and develop an ITP-specific treatment taking the advantages of mAb and AIAb techniques.
