In vitro anti-sickling effect on cepharanthine.

Cepharanthine, a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid, was found to have an in vitro anti-sickling activity. The activity is of the same magnitude as that of chlorpromazine, an anti-psychotic drug, but cepharanthine has not neuroleptic action. The most attractive feature of cepharanthine as a possible anti-sickling drug may be that the drug has been clinically used in Japan for other diseases and is known to have very few side effects both when given in large doses and over a long term. The drug can be administered either orally or intravenously. Cepharanthine has been reported to have several clinical effects, such as enhancement of the immune response, improvement of peripheral circulation, vasodilation and inhibition of platelet aggregation, all of which may also be beneficial to sickle-cell patients.