Functional foods: promising therapeutics for Nigerian Children with sickle cell diseases

Authors

Oladeji John Alabi, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Fikayo Noah Adegboyega, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria
Dolapo Samuel Olawoyin, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria
Oluwakemi Arinola Babatunde, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, Alexandria, Egypt

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2022

Citation

Heliyon 8 (2022) e09630

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09630

Comments

This is an open access article under the CC BY license

Abstract

Sickle cell disease (SCD), also known as sickle cell anemia (SCA) is one of the structural hemoglobinopathies that occurs due to a single nucleotide mutation from GAG to GTG, which changes the amino acid of a β-globin chain of hemoglobin (Hb) from glutamate to valine. This singular mutation results to disorderliness in red blood cells (RBCs) with advent of changes in RBC morphology and other pathological conditions. In the 1980s, intermittent red blood cell transfusions, opioids, and penicillin prophylaxis were the only available therapy for SCA and were commonly reserved for acute, life threatening complications. So far, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a total of four drugs approval for the prophylaxis and treatment of the clinical complications of SCD. Due to limitations (adherence, safety, adverse effects) of existing therapies in the prophylaxis and treatment of SCD complications in Nigerian children and their inaccessibility to approved drugs, the present study discusses the therapeutic effects of readily available functional food as one of the therapies or an adjunct therapy to tackle the sickle cell crisis in Nigerian Children.