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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

A Precision Medicine Tool for Measurement and Monitoring of Hemoglobin S in Sickle Cell Disease Patients Receiving Transfusion Therapy
SAR1a promoter polymorphisms are not associated with fetal hemoglobin in patients with sickle cell disease from
Gift Dineo Pule1, Valentina Josiane Ngo Bitoungui2, Bernard Chetcha Chemegni2
1Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Anzio Road, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, Republic of South Africa.
Background:
Reactivation of adult hemoglobin (HbF) is currently a dominant therapeutic approach to sickle cell disease (SCD). In this study, we have investigated among SCD patients from Cameroon, the association of HbF level and variants in the HU-inducible small guanosine triphosphate-binding protein, secretion-associated and RAS-related (SAR1a) protein, previously shown to be associated with HbF after HU treatment in African American SCD patients.
Results:
Only patients >5 years old were included; hemoglobin electrophoresis and a full blood count were conducted upon arrival at the hospital. RFLP-PCR was used to describe the HBB gene haplotypes and Gap PCR to investigate the 3.7 kb α-globin gene deletion. The iPLEX Gold Sequenom Mass Genotyping Array and cycle sequencing were used for the genotyping of four selected SNPs in SAR1a (rs2310991; rs4282891; rs76901216 and rs76901220). Genetic analysis was performed using an additive genetic model, under a generalized linear regression framework. 484 patients were studied. No associations were observed between any of the promoter variants and baseline HbF, clinical events or other hematological indices.
Conclusion:
The results of this study could be explained by possible population-specificity of some tagging genomic variants associated with HbF production and illustrated the complexity of replicating HbF-promoting variants association results across African populations.
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