News

The prenatal test UNITY, which uses maternal blood samples, is effective in screening for sickle cell disease (SCD), cystic fibrosis (CF), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and thalassemias, a study has found. The study, “A novel high-throughput molecular counting method with single base-pair resolution enables accurate…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded $2 million to support a Phase 2 clinical trial testing whether daily supplementation of vitamin D reduces the risk of respiratory complications in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). Gary M. Brittenham, MD, a pediatrician…

A newly designed viral vector — the vehicle that delivers a gene therapy to a patient’s cells — for use in sickle cell anemia is more efficient than earlier vectors at introducing healthy copies of genes into stem cells and can be produced in greater amounts, studies in animal models…

Strong evidence points to some complications of sickle cell anemia (SCA) having as much to do with nutrition as they do with genes.  Characteristics and symptoms of the disease include poor growth, pain, infection, decreased muscle function, problems with cognition and coordination, low antioxidant status, and anemia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will share an award total of nearly $1.2 million with institutions in seven U.S. states, allowing them to take part in a data gathering program on sickle cell disease and how it affects daily life. The funding brings to nine…

A multidisciplinary plan implemented at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital was able to cut by more than half the number of days young sickle cell disease (SCD) patients were hospitalized for a vaso-occlusive crisis and lower their readmission rates, a study reports.

Next month’s annual conference of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) in Washington, D.C., couldn’t come at a better time, says Marshall Summar, MD, chairman of NORD’s board of directors. “The pace of discovery in rare diseases has gone from brisk to hypersonic,” Summar told Bionews Services, publisher…

During National Sickle Cell Awareness Month, the American Red Cross is asking people to consider making a blood donation to benefit sickle cell disease patients — like Marqus Valentine. After all, such donations are crucial for Valentine, who was told by physicians, just before turning 30, that he…

Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) who arrive at an emergency department with vaso-occlusive episodes (VOEs) are more likely to have a longer delay before treatment, receive less narcotics than recommended, and to be admitted to the hospital, compared with SCD patients who present to a specialty day hospital, a…

A community town hall is set for Detroit to raise awareness about sickle cell disease, with a discussion about current and future therapies, as part of the Sideline Sickle Cell campaign by Emmaus Life Sciences, together with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Michigan Chapter. The…