Ultimos avances en el tratamiento de la enfermedad de células falciformes.

Abstract

Sickle cell disease is define as a group of genetic disorders characterized by the presence of hemoglobin S, anemia, and acute and chronic tissue damage. Sickle cell anemia is the most common type of sickle cell disease, and is caused by the presence of the βs- globin gene in the homozygous state. At present there is no cure for sickle cell anemia except for bone marrow transplantantion, which is available only to a limited number of individuals. The lack of drugs or treatments to cure sickle cell disease is due in part to the absence of good experimental animal models. The recently available sickle cell transgenic mice models should promote the experimentation of new treatments for sickle cell disease. Until a cure is found, the treatment would continue to alleviate the clinical complications associated with the disease. Un update on immunizations, prophylactic penicillin, folic acid, trental, chelation and iron therapy, experimental and other drugs for treatment of sickle cell anemia is presented in this article.