The Pressing Need for Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Sickle Cell Disease: A Review of Current and Future Technologies

Abstract

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a common and life threatening inherited blood disorder, affecting over 300,000 newborns per year. Over 75% of SCD births occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where the lack of timely and accurate diagnosis results in premature death within the first few years of life for a majority of affected infants. Current methods to diagnosis SCD require expensive laboratory equipment and reagents, and adequately trained laboratory personnel. In addition, test results are often delayed due to transport and batching of samples in a central laboratory. Financial and technical limitations often preclude any form of SCD laboratory testing at the local level in regions where SCD is most prevalent. There has been a recent surge of interest in addressing the global burden of SCD, including improving and optimizing diagnostic capacities. Largely stimulated by a funding opportunity from the NIH, several point-of-care diagnostics have been developed for SCD with a focus on developing devices that are inexpensive, simple, and practical in limited resource settings. In this manuscript, we review the global burden of SCA, including the rationale for the development of POC assays, and carefully review the POC devices currently in development.