New breakthrough in the treatment of sickle cell disease

According to the French newspaper Les Echos (Echoes), the medical community has just recorded the first success in anti-sickle cell gene therapy - a genetic disorder caused by genetic mutations.

The success was marked by the fact that a group of medical doctors treated the disease for a 15-year-old Antilles (Dutch territory, located in the Caribbean Sea), and was active The health of patients recovered almost normal.

Currently about 7% of the world's population has sickle cell disease.

Mr. Stanislas Lyonnet, General Director of the Institute of Imagine Imagine, which specializes in research and treatment of leading genetic diseases in Europe, stressed that achieving the above positive results is considered a "turning point" in the field of gene therapy. against sickle cell disease .

According to statistics, there are about 7% of the world population (equivalent to 520 million people) with sickle cell disease. The disease occurs when a person inherits both abnormal DNA patterns of hemoglobin hemoglobin (the key constituent of red blood cells and carries oxygen around the body), one from father and one from mother .

The abnormality of this hemoglobin causes red blood cells, instead of a disc-like, round and flattened structure, to carry an irregular, hard and crescent-like shape in certain conditions. The disease leads to a number of acute and chronic health problems, such as severe infections and severe pain (or "sickle cell disease" ), even with a high risk of death. The disease appears in many parts of Africa and South Asia, but so far, there is no cure.

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has even stated that treating this disease is a priority medical issue of the world.