Document Type
Article
Publication Title
PLoS One
Abstract
Decades of research have established that the most effective treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD) is increased fetal hemoglobin (HbF). Identification of a drug specific for inducing γ-globin expression in pediatric and adult patients, with minimal off-target effects, continues to be an elusive goal. One hurdle has been an assay amenable to a high-throughput screen (HTS) of chemicals that displays a robust γ-globin off-on switch to identify potential lead compounds. Assay systems developed in our labs to understand the mechanisms underlying the γ- to β-globin gene expression switch during development has allowed us to generate a cell-based assay that was adapted for a HTS of 121,035 compounds. Using chemical inducer of dimerization (CID)-dependent bone marrow cells (BMCs) derived from human γ-globin promoter-firefly luciferase β-globin promoter-Renilla luciferase β-globin yeast artificial chromosome (γ-luc β-luc β-YAC) transgenic mice, we were able to identify 232 lead chemical compounds that induced γ-globin 2-fold or higher, with minimal or no β-globin induction, minimal cytotoxicity and that did not directly influence the luciferase enzyme. Secondary assays in CID dependent wild-type β-YAC BMCs and human primary erythroid progenitor cells confirmed the induction profiles of seven of the 232 hits that were cherry-picked for further analysis.
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0107006
Publication Date
9-16-2014
ISSN
1932-6203
Recommended Citation
Peterson KR, Costa FC, Fedosyuk H, Neades RY, Chazelle AM, Zelenchuk L, Fonteles AH, Dalal P, Roy A, Chaguturu R, Li B, Pace BS. A Cell-Based High-Throughput Screen for Novel Chemical Inducers of Fetal Hemoglobin for Treatment of Hemoglobinopathies. PLoS One. 2014; 9(9). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107006.
