Advances in sickle cell disease treatment: From drug discovery until the patient monitoring

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is one of the most prevalent hematological diseases in the world. Despite the immense progress in molecular knowledge about SCD in last years few therapeutical sources are currently available. Nowadays the treatment is performed mainly with drugs such as hydroxyurea or other fetal hemoglobin inducers and chelating agents. This review summarizes current knowledge about the treatment and the advancements in drug design in order to discover more effective and safe drugs. Patient monitoring methods in SCD are also discussed. © 2011 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Keywords

Chelating agents, Drug discovery, Fetal hemoglobin, Gardos channel, Gene therapy, Hemoglobin modifiers, Hydroxyurea, New drugs, Nitric oxide, Patient monitoring, Poloxamer 188, Sickle cell, Sickle cell treatment, Stem cell transplant, 5 aza 2' deoxycytidine, 5 hydroxymethylfurfural, aldehyde derivative, antifungal agent, antiinfective agent, arginase, calcium, ciklavit, clotrimazole, deferasirox, deferoxamine, deferoxamine mesylate, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, glutamic acid, hemoglobin, hemoglobin S, hydroxyurea, iron chelating agent, Niprisan, nitric oxide, ns 1652, ns 3623, opiate, orphan drug, plant medicinal product, poloxamer, pyrimidine antagonist, unclassified drug, unindexed drug, valine, vanillin, vitamin D, absence of side effects, acute chest syndrome, acute toxicity, aplastic crisis, bioavailability, blood transfusion, bone density, bone marrow suppression, cancer development, cell cycle G1 phase, cell cycle S phase, deoxygenation, drug bioavailability, drug cost, drug design, drug dose increase, drug marketing, drug megadose, drug safety, energy metabolism, erythrocyte shape, erythrocyte structure, erythrocyte transfusion, gastrointestinal symptom, growth retardation, health education, hemolysis, human, hyperpigmentation, immunization, in vitro study, in vivo study, infection sensitivity, inflammation, injection site infection, injection site inflammation, iron overload, leg ulcer, medicinal plant, multicenter study (topic), neglected disease, osteomalacia, osteoporosis, oxygen transport, oxygenation, pain, patient compliance, patient monitoring, phase 2 clinical trial (topic), plant seed, priapism, quality of life, randomized controlled trial (topic), rash, shunting, sickle cell anemia, side effect, supplementation, survival, treatment duration, ulcerative lesion, vitamin supplementation, Anemia, Sickle Cell, Animals, Antisickling Agents, Chelating Agents, Drug Discovery, Erythrocytes, Hemoglobins, Hemorheology, Humans, Nitric Oxide, Plant Preparations