Morphological characteristics of leukocytes and platelets from patients with sickle cell anemia and thalassemia: analysis by image cytometry (Amnis ImageStream)

Abstract

This new Multi-PI thematic project proposal will be conducted by the Red Blood Cell Research Group, which is formed by researchers from the Hemocentro (Blood Center), the Department of Clinical Pathology, School of Medical Sciences and the Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering Center (CBMEG) at UNICAMP, in collaboration with several Brazilian and international researchers. The new project represents a major expansion of the previous proposal with the inclusion of new and unprecedented themes, which will undoubtedly result in extremely significant data, from a scientific point of view, and in the therapy of the diseases studied. This project aims to reveal important aspects of red blood cell disease pathophysiology and to discover new forms of treatment using state of the art equipment and technology which, and to broaden the international collaborations formed in recent years. New methods and equipment will be introduced; an intravital microscopy platform for investigation of the microcirculation in vivo, the Amnis ImageStream equipment for the visualization of interactions and cellular alterations, studies using iPS techniques and ultimate generation gene sequencing methods. Taken as a whole, the project proposes studies in five broad areas related to changes in erythrocytes and subsequent diseases; the identification of genes associated with erythropoiesis and molecular factors that regulate the production of HbF, the effects of hemolysis and identification of therapeutic targets, structural and functional changes of the hemoglobin molecule, aspects of the pathophysiology of red blood cell-related diseases and, finally, new drugs and therapeutic targets for the Hemoglobinopathies. The exceptional team of Brazilian and foreign researchers involved in the proposal, associated with the use of methods and equipment described, represents a modern multidisciplinary approach with the use of in vitro and in vivo methods for researching aspects of red cell diseases that have not yet been clarified. We believe that this approach will provide fundamental data for the knowledge of these diseases and the development of new therapies for their treatment.