Centre working on finding cure for sickle cell disease using gene-editing technology

The Centre is working on finding a cure for sickle cell disease with the help of a gene-editing technology. The tribal affairs ministry is exploring the probability of harnessing the use of the CRISPR technology to work on a vaccine for the blood disorder which passes from one generation to another.

The disease, in which red blood cells convert into the shape of a sickle, can block blood flow inside the body, thereby, causing pain and also lead to severe anaemia. The disease is prevalent in tribal communities.

A senior official of the tribal affairs ministry said that through the CRISPR technology, or the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats technology, genetic material of a person can be either added, or removed, or altered within the genome. The technology was also used during Covid to explore a cure.

“We have invited professionals from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to explore if such a treatment can be made, which can then be administered via the immune globulin intravenous (IGIV) system. A committee of professionals from the Indian Council of Medical Research and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences are also working on research on this matter,” the senior official said.

Apart from that, the ministry is also looking at newer methods of diagnosis of the disease, since the current method of solubility test could lead to false positives. The ministry is working with experts to come up with a newer method of testing without using the blood of the patient.

Of the 1.5 crore tests that it has conducted over the years, the ministry said it found 10 per cent of those tested, or 15 lakh were carriers, and over 1.5 lakh were positive. The ministry is also working on a nationwide database of people who are sickle cell positive. Ten states, including Gujarat, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, are the most affected.

In addition, the ministry has asked the health ministry to ensure that sickle cell detection tests are part of routine checkups.

As part of its awareness campaign, the ministry had also asked Sir Gangaram Hospital to come up with a book that covers everything on the disease. The book will soon be published. Another book, written by a team of experts and haematologists from AIIMS, Max Hospital, Sickle Cell Institute and National Institute of Immunology will also be out soon.