New therapies to treat sickle cell disease (SCD) may receive a boost after CSL Behring‘s recent $91 million acquisition of Calimmune. CSL Behring will now develop Calimmune’s pre-clinical product, CAL-H — a gene therapy candidate based on hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), or those that generate all the blood cells in…
A new pre-transplant conditioning regimen remarkably improves rejection rates and survival in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), according to the results of Phase 1/2 trial (NCT00920972). The study, “Unrelated Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation for Sickle Cell Disease Following Reduced Intensity Conditioning: Results of a Phase I Trial,”…
Researchers at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered an innovative method of producing healthy stem cells that could significantly improve treatment of sickle cell anemia and other blood disorders. A study describing the method, “Conversion of adult endothelium to immunocompetent haematopoietic stem cells,” appeared in the journal Nature. Hematopoietic…
Differences in comorbidities, pain, healthcare utilization and psychosocial outcomes were addressed in three groups of sickle cell disease (SCD) patients, distinguished by their respective ages, in the Pain in the Sickle Cell Epidemiology Study (PiSCES). Other studies are needed to determine if age-specific healthcare measures might improve these patients’ lives. The…
Individuals with sickle cell trait (SCT), a common hemoglobin gene variant in African-Americans, have an increased risk of developing kidney disease, new research shows. These findings may have important implications in genetic counseling for individuals with SCT. The study “Sickle Cell Trait and the Risk of ESRD in Blacks” appeared…
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