UTHealth Houston opens recruitment in RISE-UP clinical drug trial for people with sickle cell anemia
Modupe Idowu, MD, professor and medical director of the Adult Sickle Cell Comprehensive Center at UTHealth Houston, is enrolling patients in the Phase III clinical drug trial. (Photo by UTHealth Houston/ Nathan Jeter)
A medication that appeared to stabilize the function and shape of red blood cells in an earlier study for patients with sickle cell disease is now part of a Phase III clinical trial that is open for enrollment at UTHealth Houston.
The trial, led locally by Modupe Idowu, MD, professor of hematology with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, will enroll patients at the UT Physicians Comprehensive Adult Sickle Cell Center, which is one of the first sites open for recruitment in the global study.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that causes red blood cells to become misshapen, or sickle-shaped. The cells clump together and stick to vessel walls, preventing oxygen flow. The loss of the cell’s normal shape and ability to carry hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein, in blood vessels results in severe pain episodes called vaso-occlusive crises and damage to organs in the body. The disease affects millions of people worldwide and an estimated 100,000 in the United States.