OTHER FUNCTIONS-SBIR TOPIC 66 PHASE I: HAPTOGLOBIN TREATMENT TO REDUCE COMPLICATIONS OF SICKLE CELL DISEASE

To reduce oxidative stress of patients with sickle cell anemia, the solicitation calls for harvesting hemoglobin-binding haptoglobin from the donated blood and intravenously injecting haptoglobin to the patient to capture and process free sickle cell hemoglobin in the blood. Polymorphic haptoglobins are to be extracted from the Cohen's fraction V or equivalent. Haptoglobin forms a complex with hemoglobin and the complex is recognized with CD-163 macrophages followed by metabolic decomposition in the liver and the components recycled. What is not certain, however, is if the patient is capable of synthesizing additional CD-163 scavenger bound macrophages to process and metabolize the additional sickle cell hemoglobin bound haptoglobin formed by haptoglobin injection. To circumvent this uncertainty, anti-haptoglobin antibodies will be attached to proprietary centrifugally retrievable high-density nano-particles to form rNA, and let it bind with haptoglobin (Hp) in the healthy human plasma to form rNHp. Second, the synthesized rNHp wil be injected to the patients to bind sickle cell hemoglobin (HbS) to form the super-complex (rNHp-HbS), which will be retrieved with aphaeresis.