Fe. A simple two letters on the periodic table signifying the element iron. The periodic table is for chemistry freaks though, right? Well that very well may be, as the only interactions that some people think they have with iron are in an industrial sense or going to the gym to “pump some iron.” Little do most people know, however, that this tiny element with the title of Fe, is one that not only is essential in your blood cells to carry oxygen but also one that is involved in Parkinson’s disease. In the words of someone famous, “You better recognize.”
Now, before reading this paper I was aware that iron played an important role in the body, but I’ll admit I did not think that it could possibly play a role in one of the more well-known neurodegenerative diseases. The title of the paper is a messy one so I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much if you don’t understand what it means after just reading it because I barely do. The paper is titled Targeting Dysregulation of the Brain Iron Homeostasis in Parkinson’s Disease by Iron Chelators. I dare you to say that five times fast, go ahead it’s definitely a mouthful. But the link between PD and iron is there. People who have PD have been shown to have a much higher level of iron in their system than people who do not.
So the question becomes, how do we regulate iron inside of our cells and our body? Iron in the brain should be kept at homeostatic levels. This is achieved by the IRP family of cellular receptors, which have been given the extremely clever and unique names IRP1 and IRP2. These receptors are very interesting in that when cellular iron levels become too low, IRP binds to ferritin, which prevents the cell from “storing” excess iron, making more iron available for the use of the cell. If this system is for some reason not working, this can cause some oxidative stress on the cell which leads to things like lewy bodies and synuclein. Coincidentally enough, synuclein and lewy bodies are very prevalent in PD. So now that we know iron’s role in PD, how in the world is it possible to keep iron at homeostatic levels?
Iron chelators are a way that we can do this. These chelators have the capability to decrease excess iron that is found in the cell by binding to it. Effective use of these chelators would obviously be extremely beneficial to people who are dealing with PD. As always in science, more research is needed. But, it is reassuring to me and should be to you as well that we have our hands all over this disease trying to find more and more leads to treatments and cures to one day potentially eliminate the disease.
Should we be pumping iron?
