The Design of an Activation Specific Platelet Inhibitor that can be Turned On/Off at Medically Employed Hypothermia

Introduction: Platelet aggregation and vascular thrombus formation are known side effects of medically employed hypothermia used during cardiac surgery. Elastin is a polypeptide that is known to undergo thermally induced structural transition. This study investigated whether the fusion of elastin-mimetic polypeptide (EMP) to an activation-specific GPIIb/IIIa-blocking single-chain antibody (scFv) could enable selective hypothermia-induced anti-platelet therapy.