Sickle cell research could lead to pain crises index
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Once New Trier High School senior Catherine Ji started doing experiments and research instead of just learning concepts in class, science felt a lot more engaging—especially since her work could have meaningful impact on people with sickle cell disease.
Ji has been working with Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Zhangli Peng on research that uses microscopic imaging and modeling to predict certain episodes in sickle cell disease called vaso-occlusive crises.
Now, the pair have published an article on the research in the Journal of Emerging Investigators, a journal and mentorship program from Harvard University that publishes research by middle and high school scientists.
Sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anemia, is a hereditary condition where red blood cells become rigid and develop a long, crescent-shape due to abnormal hemoglobin and affects more than 100,000 people in the U.S. and eight million people worldwide, according to the National Institute of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
One kind of complication that can occur are vaso-occlusive crises, when stiff, crescent-shape red blood cells get stuck, blocking small blood vessels, disrupting blood flow, and depriving tissues of oxygen, leading to intense pain and potential organ damage. Ji and Peng wanted to find out how the proportion of sickle cells in a person’s blood correlates to how often the pain crises occur.
“The major thing in vaso-occlusive crises is that they cause pain, but this can lead to many other things including acute chest syndrome and even strokes,” Ji said. “However, it depends on where the vaso-occlusion happens. If it happened in the lung, it could cause chest and acute pain in the lungs or if it happened in the brain, then it can cause stroke. All can result in possible organ damage as well and acute chest syndrome, a potentially life-threatening complication.”
There is no current index to monitor sickle cell patients pain crises; although there are cures for sickle cell disease such as bone marrow transplants or gene therapy, they are usually inaccessible for most sickle cell patients because they’re too expensive or there is a lack of donors.
To create such an index, Ji and Peng used blood smear imaging under a microscope combined with modeling simulation tools to create an index to explain when a patient is at risk and could be injured. The model predicts how the red blood and sickle cells pass through a capillaries. Ji and Peng also used previous research from Howard University to inform their work.
Their research could lead to a noninvasive way to predict pain crises.