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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder caused by a point mutation in the β‐globin gene, where glutamic acid is replaced by valine at the sixth position of the β‐chain of hemoglobin (Hb). In 1991, vanillin, a natural flavoring agent, has been reported as anti‐sickling agent (Abraham et al., 1991). The results have shown that vanillin covalently binds with HbS and helps in increasing its oxygen carrying affinity and thus vanillin has a moderate anti‐sickling property. However, vanillin showed poor oral bioavailability and thus demands for other mode of administration into the body. To overcome this issue, Zhang et al. (2004) synthesized a vanillin prodrug, MX‐1520, which can be biotransformed into vanillin in vivo. Oral administration of MX‐1520 prior to hypoxia exposure in the transgenic sickle mice exhibited significant reduction in the number of sickled cells, which clearly evidenced the potential of MX1520 as a safe antisickling agent for SCD patients.