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Safety of short‐term valacyclovir as an anti‐sickling agent in sickle‐cell anemia
Author(s) -
Ender Katherine L.,
DeBellis Robert H.,
Erlanger Bernard F.,
Billote Genia B.,
Brittenham Gary M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.22809
Subject(s) - medicine , tolerability , anemia , sickle cell anemia , adverse effect , hemoglobin , reticulocyte , gastroenterology , disease , biochemistry , chemistry , messenger rna , gene
To assess safety and tolerability, we administered valacyclovir, an oral anti‐viral medication that inhibits erythrocyte sickling in vitro, to 14 subjects with sickle‐cell anemia for 1 week at a standard dose of 1,000 mg every 8 hr. No clinically significant adverse effects occurred. In 11 subjects in steady state, the mean hemoglobin concentration was almost constant while the absolute reticulocyte count decreased in eight ( P = 0.1) and the overall mean fell slightly although not significantly (10%, P = 0.2). These results suggest that valacyclovir is safe and well tolerated in patients with sickle‐cell anemia and that a longer duration of therapy merits investigation. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2011;56:843–845. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.