Uni Alabama studyProfessor Long Zheng, who is University of Alabama's director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine, is working with his team on molecular-level studies of an antibody that inactivates ADAMTS13 (which is a blood enzyme). It's basically inhibiting of ADAMTS13 by this antibody within patients suffering TTP that leads to microvascular clots.

As a report of the study says:- The ability of ADAMTS13 to recognize von Willibrand factor is exquisitely sensitive, somewhat like a fan who goes to a football game with 50,000 people and yet recognizes his cousin out of all the faces in the crowd. Similarly, the ability of the autoimmune antibodies in a TTP patient to recognize and bind to the patient’s own ADAMTS13 enzyme is also exquisitely sensitive, picking only ADAMTS13 out of all the other possible “self” proteins in the body.

But if Prof. Zheng and his team can uncover how these two abilities work, then they could alter the enzyme to stop it being hit by the immune system without causing any further side effects. If they achieve it this would greatly assist recovery times and massively cut treatment costs too. It's a long way from being anything available, but it's exciting research all the same.