Structural Bioinformatics Inc(SBI) has developed a non-covalent small-molecule compound that inhibits the polymerisation of sickle cell disease-related hemoglobin in laboratory tests.
The investigators reported on the joint collaboration between SBI and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America's 30th Anniversary National Convention, held in Washington, DC.
"Our Genes to Leads technology has led to the development of the most potent non-covalent inhibitor of sickle cell disease-related polymerisation reported to date,“ said SBI chairman and chief executive officer, Edward T Maggio, PhD. "Based upon the exciting results obtained to date, SBI is exploring the availability of grant funding and is seeking pharmaceutical company participation.“
In the US alone, 8 per cent of Americans of African descent carry the sickle cell gene. Other affected populations in the United States include Hispanics from the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America. In total, the disease results in 75000 hospitalisations per year in the US, with a total cost of almost a half billion dollars per year.
According to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Inc sickle cell originated in at least four places in Africa and in the Indian/Saudi Arabian subcontinent. It exists in all countries of Africa and in areas where Africans have migrated.
It is most common in West and Central Africa where as many as 25 per cent of the people have sickle cell trait and 12 per cent of all babies are born with a form of the disease. In the United States with an estimated population of over 270 million, about 1000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year. In contrast, Nigeria, with an estimated 1997 population of 90 million, 4500090000 babies with sickle cell disease are born each year.
The transatlantic slave trade was largely responsible for introducing the sickle cell gene into the Americas and the Caribbean. However, sickle cell disease had already spread from Africa to Southern Europe by the time of the slave trade so it is present in Portuguese, Spaniards, French Corsicans, Sardinians, Sicilians, mainland Italians, Greeks, Turks and Cypriots. Sickle cell disease appears in most of the Near and Middle East countries including Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen.
The condition has also been reported in India and Sri Lanka. Sickle cell disease is an international health problem and truly a global challenge.
SBI's internal drug discovery programs are focused on diabetes, cancer, and inflammatory and infectious diseases. SBI's Genes to Leads technology produces drug leads in as little as 60 days, with an efficiency that is more than 1000-fold greater than high-throughput screening.
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