Cholesterol Drugs May Help Children With Sickle Cell Disease


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January 20, 2010 7:54 a.m. EST

Topics: Health, Science
David Goodhue - AHN Reporter

Memphis, TN, United States (AHN) - Drugs designed to treat high cholesterol and heart disease are being investigated as a possible treatment for children suffering from sickle cell disease.

Researchers with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. say they have identified a use for statins as a way of warding off pneumococcal bacterial infections in children with sickle cell.

Children with the disease are at a much higher risk of death from infections than children without the illness are.

Scientists with the hospital treated mice with sickle cell disease with a statin before infecting them with the pneumococcal bacteria. These mice lived much longer than sickle cell-infected mice that were not given the statins.

The study appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.


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