4 April 1973
Paul Wolf
Linus Pauling
Potassium Thiocyanate and Sickle-Cell Anemia
I remember having mentioned potassium thiocyanate to you last year, because it is discussed along with uria in
the paper on Denaturation of Proteins that Mirsky and I published in 1936, and I thought that if uria would be effective,
potassium thiocyanate might be, too. There is a paper by E.G. Torrance and T.G. Schnabel on potassium sulfocyanate: A Note
on Its Use for the Painful Crises in Sickle-Cell Anemia, Animals of Internal Medicine 6, 782 (1932). The daily dose of thiocyanate
was about 500 mg, stated to be enough to relieve the sickle-cell crisis.
I suggest that it would be worthwhile to try this treatment.
I have been reminded to bring up the matter of potassium thiocyanate by having received a communication form Robert
G. Houston.
LP
LP:ky
