Deferiprone, available for the past 20 years, is used in more than 60 countries to prevent death from blood transfusion - related complications during
treatment of thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin.
The researchers found that the technique corrected the mutation to such a degree that the mice no longer had
symptoms of thalassemia.
However a human could rationalise the faulty belief by reinterpreting the metaphor in a newspaper style as «the cure for the political turmoil that beset the
inhabitants of thalassemia».
A very rare
form of a thalassemia is due to a deletion of a larger area of chromosome 16 including the a globin genes.
The first team to achieve a genetic rewrite of sickle cell and
of thalassemia, a related blood disorder, will hit the jackpot.
If a severe thalassemia or one
of the thalassemia - mental retardation syndromes is diagnosed in a family, prenatal diagnosis during pregnancies at risk is advised.