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Anemia
Published in Charles Theisler, Adjuvant Medical Care, 2023
Anemias are a group of diseases characterized by a significant reduction in the amount of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin, resulting in a corresponding decrease in the blood’s oxygen carrying capacity to the cells and tissues. Anemia is the most common blood disorder in the world, affecting more than three million individuals and is often a sign of underlying pathology. If the anemia onset is gradual, a person may not be symptomatic until the hemoglobin level is less than 8 gm/dL.1 Symptoms often include fatigue, pale skin, rapid heart beat or palpitations, poor appetite, shortness of breath, and dizziness. There are many different types and causes of anemia.
Components of Nutrition
Published in Christopher Cumo, Ancestral Diets and Nutrition, 2020
Proteins perform crucial functions. For example, insulin, mentioned earlier and having fifty-one amino acids, is the hormone that tells cells to admit glucose.69 In this way, insulin regulates the amounts of glucose inside and outside cells. Insulin also regulates glucose by telling the liver to store excess for release when the sugar becomes scarce in blood. Heme proteins, defined by the presence of iron (Fe), shuttle molecules and electrons throughout the body. Hemoglobin, a component of red blood cells, brings oxygen to cells and removes carbon dioxide for transport to the lungs. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, though human respiration emits little compared to factories and automobiles. The protein keratin helps form hair and skin. Proteins known as enzymes catalyze the body’s reactions. For example, enzymes pepsin and trypsin aid protein digestion by catalyzing cleavage of amino acid peptide bonds, mentioned earlier. Integral to the immune system, proteins that combat pathogens are known as antibodies. Attention has focused on the protein interferon, which targets viruses.
Cellular Components of Blood
Published in Peter Kam, Ian Power, Michael J. Cousins, Philip J. Siddal, Principles of Physiology for the Anaesthetist, 2020
Peter Kam, Ian Power, Michael J. Cousins, Philip J. Siddal
The red blood cell is an anucleate biconcave disc, 7.5 μm wide and 2 μm thick (average dimensions). It has a large surface area relative to its volume, and this promotes gaseous diffusion into the cell. The red cell is markedly deformable and thus is able to squeeze through capillaries.
Research Progress of Cell-Free Fetal DNA in Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis of Thalassemia
Published in Hemoglobin, 2023
Dewen Liu, Chen Nong, Fengming Lai, Yulian Tang, Taizhong Wang
Thalassemia is a common hemolytic disease caused by abnormal globin synthesis due to mutations or deletions of HBA1, HBA2 or HBB genes, resulting in abnormal morphology and life cycle of red blood cells. The Globin website (https://globin.bx.psu.edu/cgi-bin/hbvar/counter) currently records more than 500 types of thalassemia mutations and deletions. Thalassemia is also a hereditary autosomal global disease; globally, an estimated 270 million people suffer from or carry abnormal hemoglobin and thalassemia [1]. Generally, the clinical symptoms of thalassemia carriers are mild, or even indistinguishable from those of healthy individuals. However, if both couples are carriers of thalassemia, then each time the fetus is born, there is a 1/4 chance of developing thalassemia major. There is no effective cure for thalassemia major except for bone marrow transplantation. Therefore, in areas with a high prevalence of thalassemia, prenatal diagnosis is the most effective means and method to reduce the number of newborns with thalassemia major. Invasive prenatal diagnosis is a common method for the diagnosis of thalassemia at present. Invasive procedures include amniocentesis, chorionic villi sampling, or umbilical cord blood sampling, all of which are traumatic and can cause vaginal bleeding, cervical abnormalities, and an increased risk of fetal infection in pregnant women [2–4], and ultrasound-assisted sampling is needed.
An evaluation of deferiprone as twice-a-day tablets or in combination therapy for the treatment of transfusional iron overload in thalassemia syndromes
Published in Expert Review of Hematology, 2023
Richa Shah, Aashaka Shah, Sherif M. Badawy
Thalassemia syndromes are autosomal recessive inherited hematological disorders caused by insufficient production of the globin chains of hemoglobin, resulting in red blood cell destruction and chronic anemia [1,2]. Thalassemia syndromes are categorized by the affected globin chains; alpha and beta-thalassemia refer to a reduction in functional alpha and beta globin chains, respectively [1]. Four genes are required for the production of alpha globin, while beta-globin is made from two genes [3]. The severity of thalassemia can be categorized as minor, intermedia, or major, depending on how many of the alpha or beta genes are defective, either through mutation or deletion of key gene fragments [3]. A more commonly used operational classification or definition includes transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT), in reference to thalassemia major and patients who receive more than 8 transfusions in a year, and non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia (NTDT) for the less severe manifestations that do not require life-long blood transfusions for survival [4]. It is possible to co-inherit alpha and beta thalassemia, and the combination of both can result in milder symptoms due to less of an imbalance of alpha and beta globin chains [3].
The role of artificial cells in the fight against COVID-19: deliver vaccine, hemoperfusion removes toxic cytokines, nanobiotherapeutics lower free radicals and pCO2 and replenish blood supply
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2022
Nanobiotherapeutics have been developed originally as red blood cell substitutes. Red blood cells have three major functions: (1) transport oxygen from the lung to the tissue, (2) remove damaging oxygen radicals and (3) carry carbon dioxide CO2. from the tissue to the lung to be removed. This has been developed in 3 progressing steps: Step 1. Oxygen carrier; Step 2. oxygen carrier with antioxidant properties and Step 3. oxygen carrier with antioxidant function and CO2 removal functions. Originally these are only to replace red blood cells and not to function as nanobiotherapeutics. We have recently prepared a nanobiotherapeutic with up to 6 times enhancement of red blood cell functions by using enzyme concentration of superoxide dismutase catalase and carbonic anhydrase that are six times that of rbc. This can now function also as a nanobiotherapeutic to enhance the removal of oxygen radicals and CO [46–48].