The present invention provides a class of chemical compounds useful as efficacious drugs in the treatment of sickle cell disease and diseases characterized by unwanted or abnormal cell proliferation. The active compounds are substituted triaryl methane compounds or analogues thereof where one or more of the aryl groups is replaced with a heteroaryl, cycloalkyl or heterocycloalkyl group and/or the tertiary carbon atom is replaced with a different atom such as Si, Ge, N or P. The compounds inhibit mammalian cell proliferation, inhibit the Gardos channel of erythrocytes, reduce sickle erythrocyte dehydration and/or delay the occurrence of erythrocyte sickling or deformation.