Sickle cell disease - preventing complications
| Location: | University Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford in conjunction with The Department of Physiology, University of London and Department of Haematology, St George’s Hospital Medical School, Tooting, London. |
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| Amount: | £88,888 |
| Status: | Research completed |
| Start Date: | 25th October 2000 |
| Finish Date: | 24th October 2003 |
| Grantholder: | Professor John C Ellory ScD, DSc, Dr John S Gibson PhD, MA, BA, VetMB, MRCVS and Dr Sarah E Ball DM, FRCP, FRCPath, FRCPCH |
| Research worker: | Mrs V Ball |
Sickle cell disease is a serious blood disorder for which there is no effective treatment. It affects a quarter of a million people per year, mainly in the Tropics, USA and the Caribbean but also in Northern Europe (due to migration) where it is one of the most common inherited diseases. In the UK, about 3,500 babies born every year will carry the sickle gene, and each year, over 200 of them will develop the disease. These patients have complications from sickle cell ‘crises’, (which can cause excruciating pain, stroke, bone, renal and lung disease) and also anaemia and infections. This project addresses how conditions in the circulation cause sickle cell crises to erupt and will investigate how the use of drugs can prevent these conditions arising.
Healthy red blood cells (left) contrast with sickle cells
