BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Two edges of sickle cell disease

January 20, 2011 8:00 AM UTC

A U.S.-China team has shown that inhibiting signaling between adenosine and the adenosine A2B receptor in blood could prevent vaso-occlusion and consequent organ damage in sickle cell disease.1 The researchers already are in talks with companies to run clinical trials of antagonists of the receptor.

Sickle cell disease results from a mutant form of β-globin (HBB) that is prone to polymerization under hypoxic conditions, resulting in the collapse of red blood cells (RBCs) into a characteristic sickle shape. The sickled RBCs can block blood vessels to cause acute episodes (vaso-occlusive crises) of pain, ischemia, tissue necrosis, organ damage and mortality...