Amyloid fibrils trigger plasma clotting by activating the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation and can explain intracardiac thrombosis in transthyretin (ATTR) and Ig-light chain amyloidosis (AL)

Alessia Dei Rossi, M.Sc., Ph.D. Student
University of Padua
Padua, Italy

The correlation between amyloidosis and coagulation is still unclear. Alessia Dei Rossi, M.Sc., Ph.D. Student, discusses the ability of amyloid fibrils to induce blood coagulation and explains the possible molecular mechanisms. The results of this presentation discuss the assays on plasma and whole blood, indicating that both natural and synthetic amyloid fibrils similarly induce clotting through activation of FXII and the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation. The effect of net charge of the fibril components was studied by comparing the effect of fibrils composed of genetically similar precursors. In conclusion, these mechanisms explain the hypercoagulable state that led to the formation of thrombi, observed in most patients with cardiac amyloidosis.