News

An evolutionary force, called balancing selection, appears to be responsible for maintaining defects in our DNA associated with diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, because the mutation’s damaging effects might be offset — in a biological way of thinking — by its potential benefits. The study, “Excess of deleterious mutations…

Researchers conducted a study with the aim of developing and validating a Sickle Cell Antibiotic Adherence Level Evaluation (SCAALE) for the accurate assessment of adherence to antibiotic use, a crucial treatment in the management of children with sickle cell disease. The SCAALE proved to be a detailed measurement of adherence…

A multidisciplinary team of researchers recently created a computer simulation model that shows how the spleen regulates red blood cell circulation. The model could provide a new tool to study the spleen’s role in controlling diseases that affect the shape of red blood cells, such as sickle cell anemia and malaria. The research…

Global biopharma Bristol-Myers Squibb has joined the public-private Angola Sickle Cell Initiative to provide Angolan children who have sickle cell disease with an effective therapy unavailable to many patients in the West African country. The initiative is a collaborative project of the Angola Ministry of Health, the…

Researchers investigated the use of hydroxyurea, a drug approved to treat sickle cell anemia in adults, in young children in New York State who are receiving this treatment. The findings reveal that pediatric use of hydroxyurea is widespread and increasing, but that incomplete adherence may limit the treatment’s full disease-modifying effects. The study,…

Researchers developed a project using what are termed “quality improvement methods” to increase the number of sickle cell anemia (SCA) babies and toddlers between the ages of 24-27 months who undergo transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) to detect the risk of stroke. The findings show the intervention resulted in significantly improved TCD…

Global Blood Therapeutics, a biopharma developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of blood-based disorders, recently announced new results from its ongoing Phase 1/2 study of GBT440-001 in sickle cell disease (SCD). The data, presented at the European Hematology Association’s 21st Congress in Copenhagen, further supports the company’s plans to develop GBT440 as a…

With interest growing in the potential of community health workers to aid in the management and care of people with sickle cell disease (SCD), researchers investigated the possibilities, making suggestions for how best to use, train and evaluate these workers. Researchers recently investigated and summarized the potential of community health workers…

June 19 was World Sickle Cell Awareness Day, but while more than 94% of children with the disease in the United States live happier, full lives because of early diagnoses and good healthcare; the survival rate of children with sickle cell disease in sub-Saharan Africa sits at an alarming 10%. Knowing that 225,000 children in…

Sunday, June 19, is World Sickle Cell Awareness Day. The Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of California is one of the organizations focusing on the still-unmet needs of patients affected by the disease, and has announced the opening of multidisciplinary sickle cell disease (SCD) services, an initiative by the Pacific…