Arginine Therapy may hold new Promise for Sickle Cell Pain

A new study looks at a type of therapy that may help relieve sickle cell pain. Arginine therapy could prove to be both a safe and inexpensive treatment for acute pain episodes in patients with sickle cell diseases, according to background information via the study, which was the first randomized placebo-controlled look at the benefits of the therapy in children.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited condition that causes the body's red blood cells to produce abnormal hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to other cells in the body. This can cause the red blood cells to distort into sickle or crescent shapes that block blood flow in small blood vessles and may lead to severe pain and organ damage.

Background information from the study notes that arginine is an amino acid found in a normal diet that's also available as a nutritional supplement. Children with an arginine deficiency often experience severe pain and may require hospitalization, according to the study.

The study  involved a randomized, double blind placebo control clinical trial of 38 children with sickle cell disease that were hospitalized for 56 episodes of pain. The research team then discovered a 54 percent reduction in the use of opiod pain medication and significantly lower pain scores at the hospital discharge that treated with arginine over those receiving a placebo.

"Episodes of pain due to vaso-occlusion are the leading cause of hospital admission and emergency room visits and are associated with increased mortality, yet there is no effective therapy targeting the underlying cause," Lead study author Claudia R. Morris, M.D. Associated Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Emory University of Medicine said, via a press release. "Treatment consists only of symptom relief with pain medicines and hydration. There is an urgent need for new therapies for acute sickle cell pain, and a greater than 50 percent reduction in use of opioid pain medication was a remarkable finding."

Overall, the study concluded with no problems found regarding safety in the use of arginine therapy.

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More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Haematologica.