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The Conservation Of Coagulation Factor V

Decent Essays
Rob Markowitz NSA

The Conservation of Coagulation Factor V Protein, and its Role in Factor V Leiden Thrombophilia

Introduction: The cascade which must occur for blood to successfully clot is complex, multivariable, and fraught with opportunities to go awry. The coagulation process requires the organization of platelets, enzymes, cofactors, and fibrin to develop a protective covering when blood vessels become injured to prevent loss of blood and prohibit infection.1 While some pathologies related to clotting are a result of age, environment, or lifestyle, the most common cause of thrombophilia, an increased propensity to form blood clots in the vessels, is an inherited genetic mutation known as Factor V Leiden
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It is interesting to note that even with such an elevated risk, only roughly a tenth of those carrying the mutation will have a thrombotic event which leaves room to investigate the influence of other factors both endogenous and external.4 To this end, it is necessary to better understand the coagulation factor V protein, including it’s conservation among organisms to determine a suitable model in which to study, and in the future develop therapeutic interventions. Additionally, coagulation factor V protein presents an excellent opportunity to build upon a solid base of knowledge in regards to how organisms have evolved blood clotting functions. Given how fundamental the protein’s function is and blood clotting as a whole is, it serves as a valuable tool to probe the development of similar systems in other organisms, and assess which divergent proteins may have shared a common ancestral path.
Methods:
To fully understand the role of coagulation factor V protein, a review of the medical and scientific literature was conducted utilizing PubMed5. This was necessary to understand the implications of the mutated protein in the development of factor V Leiden thrombophilia, as well as its function as part of the cascade when the wild type gene is present. Search terms used were “Factor V
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