A project to develop an affordable and accurate diagnostic kit for rapid diagnosis of Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA) is being taken up by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB). The project is sanctioned by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The Mission Mode Project, to be led by Dr. Giriraj Chandak of CSIR-CCMB in close association with Sickle Cell Institute of Chattisgarh, will also make attempts to discover and develop new lead molecules for management of SCA, which will improve the quality of life with better life expectancy.
“Since there aren’t too many treatment strategies for SCA, genome editing and stem cell based approaches will be investigated,”said Dr. Chandak, who addressed a press conference here along with the CCMB Director Rakesh Kumar Mishra. The project will involve generating human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of SCA patients and correction of the SCA mutation through gene editing.
Under a State-sponsored programme efforts would be made to confirm the genetic status of the people who have already been screened and then perform screening in the extended families to identify carriers. It is also possible to offer pre-pregnancy counselling, prenatal diagnosis and genetic counselling to the target couples at risk of having a diseased child, Dr. Chandak said.
Based on the success of the programme, the protocol may be implemented in other States where sickle cell disease is quite prevalent including Telangana. At the same time, he felt that the Government can fund compulsory screening of children and newborns so that SCA can be effectively tackled or diagnosed early. The Maharashtra Government has created facilities for screening of newborns for the disease, he said.
The SCA is one of the most common blood related disorders in India. Every year approximately five lakh children are born with SCA worldwide with India accounting for nearly 50% of the cases.
