BIRMINGHAM: Scientists at UAB believe they have found a cure for sickle cell anemia in mice. They're quick to caution that the success in mice is promising, but say it could be several years before there is a cure for sickle cell in humans.
UAB and MIT researchers are using stem cells to treat sickle cell in mice. For the last 20 years, Dr. Tim Townes has been trying to stop sickle cell. The hope is to one day stop the painful red blood cell disease in humans.
"We replaced the mouse genes with human genes," says Dr. Tim Townes, with UAB's department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. "These animals all have the pathology of the disease."
The doctors take a skin biopsy, then turn those skin cells to stem cells. After that mutation, cells are corrected and finally transplanted back into mice. Doctors say this type of stem cell research is a breakthrough in medical studies because the stem cells were created using the patient's own cells- not human embryos.
"We predict they (the mice) will be sickle free for the rest of their lifetime," says Dr. Townes.
Doctors believe the treatment could work in humans. If it does, 70,000 Americans will be able to live a healthier life. Sickle cell anemia is diagnosed when a baby is a month old, and affects mostly people of African descent.
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