Is There Treatment for Sickle Cell Anemia?

IN 1945, as the story goes, on the overnight train between Denver and Chicago, Drs. William B. Castle and Linus Pauling discussed the possibility that sickle cell anemia (homozygous sickle cell disease) is caused by an abnormal hemoglobin.¹ Thus was born the concept of the classic "molecular disease," and with it the promise of specific therapy designed to interact biochemically with the abnormal sickle hemoglobin and break the vicious sickle cycle. Such therapies, including urea and cyanate, were indeed designed and studied in patients but were ultimately shown to be ineffective or excessively toxic. Ironically, contemporary treatments do not modify . . .