A new approach to the treatment of sickle cell anemia.

Several lines of evidence suggest that certain small molecules with a high affinity for specific sites in heme proteins may prove useful as anti-sickling agents. One agent of this group, dichloromethane, at low concentrations can prevent completely and reverse partially the aggregation of hemoglobin S. It is proposed that in the search for useful therapeutic agents attention should be given to these non-heme ligands of hemoglobin.