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Fetal Hemoglobin Regulation in Beta-Thalassemia

Henry Y Lu1, Stuart H Orkin2, Vijay G Sankaran3

  • 1Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Karp Family Research Laboratories, Boston Children's Hospital, 1 Blackfan Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/realhenrylu.

Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America
|March 12, 2023
PubMed

β-thalassemia is caused by mutations that reduce β-globin production, causing globin chain imbalance, ineffective erythropoiesis, and consequent anemia. Increased fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels can ameliorate the severity of β-thalassemia by compensating for the globin chain imbalance. Careful clinical observations paired with population studies and advances in human genetics have enabled the discovery of major regulators of HbF switching (i.e. BCL11A, ZBTB7A) and led to pharmacological and genetic therapies for treating β-thalassemia patients. Recent functional screens using genome editing and other emerging tools have identified many new HbF regulators, which may improve therapeutic HbF induction in the future.

Keywords:
AnemiaBeta-thalassemiaFetal hemoglobin

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