Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
New developments and controversies in iron metabolism and iron chelation therapy
Christina N Kontoghiorghe, George J Kontoghiorghes, Postgraduate Research Institute of Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine, Limassol 3021, Cyprus
Author contributions: Kontoghiorghe CN contributed to the literature background on recent developments on iron metabolism and chelation and critically reviewed the clinical and other aspects of the manuscript; Kontoghiorghes GJ designed, wrote and edited the manuscript including all aspects on controversies, the mechanisms of iron chelation therapy and also iron metabolism and toxicity.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: George J Kontoghiorghes, PhD, Postgraduate Research Institute of Science, Technology, Environment and Medicine, 3 Ammochostou Street, Limassol 3021, Cyprus. kontoghiorghes.g.j@pri.ac.cy
Telephone: +357-26-272076 Fax: +357-26-272076
Received: June 7, 2015
Peer-review started: June 7, 2015
First decision: September 28, 2015
Revised: November 17, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: March 26, 2016
Peer-review started: June 7, 2015
First decision: September 28, 2015
Revised: November 17, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: March 26, 2016
Core Tip
Core tip: Abnormalities of iron metabolism including iron deficiency and overload affect more than a quarter of the world’s population. Iron also plays a major role in free radical pathology and associated tissue damage. Iron chelating drugs can override normal regulatory pathways, correct iron imbalance and minimise iron toxicity. Deferiprone and especially its combination with deferoxamine can completely treat iron overload in thalassaemia. Deferiprone can minimise the toxic effects of pathological iron in neurodegenerative, renal and other diseases. Controversies in the risk/benefit assessment for the use of deferasirox in many conditions appear to involve commercial influence on academic journals and physicians.