Current and emerging drug treatment strategies to tackle sickle cell anemia

Since its discovery in the early 1900s, sickle cell disease (SCD) has contributed significantly to the scientific understanding of hemoglobin and hemoglobinopathies. Despite this, now almost a century later, optimal medical management and even curative options remain limited. Encouragingly, in the last decade, there has been a push toward advancing the care for individuals with SCD and a diversifying interest in options to manage this disorder.

Here, we review the current state of disease modifying therapies for SCD including fetal hemoglobin inducers, monoclonal antibodies, anti-inflammatory modulators, and enzyme activators. We also discuss current curative strategies with specific interest in transformative gene therapies.

SCD is a chronic, progressive disease that despite a century of clinical description, only now is seeing a growth and advance in therapeutic options to improve the lifespan and quality of life for individuals with SCD. We anticipate newly designed and even repurposed therapies that may work as a single agent or combination agents to tackle the progression of SCD. The vast majority of individuals living with SCD are unlikely to receive gene therapy, therefore improved disease management is critical even for those that may ultimately chose to pursue a potentially curative strategy.