β-Thalassemia

Gene Therapy for β - Thalassemia

Gene transfer for β-thalassemia requires gene transfer into hematopoietic stem cells using integrating vectors that direct regulated expression of β globin at therapeutic levels. Among integrating vectors, oncoretroviral vectors carrying the human βglobin gene and portions of the locus control region (LCR) have suffered from problems of vector instability, low titers and variable expression. In...

Ineffective Erythropoiesis in β-Thalassemia

In humans, β -thalassemia dyserythropoiesis is characterized by expansion of early erythroid precursors and erythroid progenitors and then ineffective erythropoiesis. This ineffective erythropoiesis is defined as a suboptimal production of mature erythrocytes originating from a proliferating pool of immature erythroblasts. It is characterized by (1) accelerated erythroid differentiation, (2) ma...

Genomic Study in β - Thalassemia

Molecular Diagnostics of β-Thalassemia

A high-quality hemoglobinopathy diagnosis is based on the results of a number of tests including assays for molecular identification of causative mutations. We describe the current diagnostic strategy for the identification of β-thalassemias and hemoglobin (Hb) variants at the International Reference Laboratory for Haemoglobinopathies, Research Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (...

Immunologic Abnormalities in β-Thalassemia

β-thalassemia is a hereditary hemolytic anemia associated with a decrease or complete lack of synthesis of β-globin chains as a result of inheriting the mutant gene. Currently there are more than 100 varieties of hemoglobin gene mutations, which can lead to β-thalassemia. In the world there are 60-70 thousand patients with major form of this genetic anomaly. The basic treatment for β-thalassemi...