An antioxidant link between sickle cell disease and severe malaria

Abstract

Although a link between sickle cell disease and resistance to severe malaria is well established, the biochemical relationship between the two is unknown. Ferreira et al. (2011) show that carriers of the sickle cell mutation increase expression of the heme oxygenase-1 enzyme, which produces antioxidant molecules that may prevent severe disease symptoms. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.