Avoiding Spleen Removal For Cooley's Anemia Sufferers - Researchers May Have Identified Key Gene Responsible For Mutated Red Blood Cells

Main Category: Blood / Hematology
Article Date: 16 Jul 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College may have discovered the precise role of a gene in one of the world's most common blood disorders, beta-thalassemia, commonly known as Cooley's anemia. Along with sickle-cell anemia, Cooley's anemia is the most commonly inherited disease in the world, affecting many people of Mediterranean descent, and 20 out of every 100,000 African-Americans. The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000-100,000 children are born with the disease each year.

The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Blood, the official publication of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

In Cooley's anemia, hemoglobin -- the oxygen-carrying molecule on red blood cells -- is mutated and non-functioning, resulting in a low red-blood-cell count. Common symptoms of the disease include fatigue, shortness of breath and an enlarged spleen, called splenomegaly, caused by a buildup of malformed red blood cells within the body. The spleen works to filter out these unhealthy cells in order to protect the body from harm, such as in a stroke, but eventually the spleen becomes over-stuffed and is commonly surgically removed (splenectomy) in order to prevent a potentially fatal burst. Unfortunately, after the spleen is removed, patients are at a much greater risk for stroke and infections.

Dr. Stefano Rivella, the study's senior author and assistant professor of genetic medicine in pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College, believes that he and his collaborators may have found a way around splenectomy. After giving mice with Cooley's a compound called JAK2 inhibitor, the researchers found that the mice's spleens shrunk to normal sizes, and they began to produce normal red blood cells. The chemical (a similar compound is already in a Phase I clinical trial for myelodysplastic syndromes -- another blood disorder) blocks the activity of the JAK2 gene that is highly expressed in Cooley's anemia, and is believed to play a crucial role in the malformation of red blood cells.

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NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances -- from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth, and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally-conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian, which is ranked sixth on the U.S.News & World Report list of top hospitals, also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree oversees and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit http://www.nyp.org and http://www.med.cornell.edu.

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Weill Cornell Medical College