News

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…

Researchers investigated how the levels of reticulocytosis, the increase of circulating immature red blood cells, correlated with increased hospitalizations and cerebrovascular pathologies in pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA) receiving chronic transfusion therapy (CTT). According to the findings, in this group of children with SCA, cerebrovascular pathology at initiation…

Researchers investigated renal papillary necrosis (RPN), a chronic complication of sickle cell anemia, and found low incidence in South-Eastern Nigerian sickle cell anemia patient cohort, but higher association rates with female patients. The study, “Prevalence and associations of symptomatic renal papillary necrosis in sickle cell anemia patients in South-Eastern Nigeria,” was…

Researchers in Brazil failed to find any genetic determinants for incidents of stroke in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), although their findings did suggest that SCD boys and those with sickle cell anemia were most at risk. The study, “Genetic determinants and stroke in children with sickle cell…

Researchers developed an evaluation method that accurately and comprehensively assesses antibiotic prophylaxis adherence in children with sickle cell disease (SCD). The study, “A validated measure of adherence to antibiotic prophylaxis in children with sickle cell disease,” was published in Patient Preference and Adherence. SCD, a genetic disorder that…

Alberta Children’s Hospital, the world’s leading pediatric center for stem cell (SC) transplant, is welcoming more sickle cell (SC) anemia patients for transplant procedures. SC anemia is a genetic disorder that alters the shape of the hemoglobin, a protein component of red blood cells responsible for transporting oxygen…

A novel nontoxic transplantation method using antibodies proves safe and effective in treating blood diseases, including sickle cell anemia, according to new research. The study, “Non-genotoxic conditioning for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a hematopoietic-cell-specific internalizing immunotoxin,” was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Patients with blood disorders,…