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Human iron metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that maintain human homeostasis of iron at the systemic and cellular level. Iron is both necessary to the body and potentially toxic. Controlling iron levels in the body is a critically important part of many aspects of human health and disease.
Accumulation of iron in the brain is extremely dangerous as excess iron catalyzes the formation of free radicals, which have damaging effects to the brain. [1] The iron accumulation characteristic of neuroferritinopathy particularly affects the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and motor cortex regions of the brain.
The blood–brain barrier is formed by the brain capillary endothelium and excludes from the brain 100% of large-molecule neurotherapeutics and more than 98% of all small-molecule drugs. [28] Overcoming the difficulty of delivering therapeutic agents to specific regions of the brain presents a major challenge to treatment of most brain disorders.
Hemosiderin or haemosiderin is an iron-storage complex that is composed of partially digested ferritin and lysosomes. The breakdown of heme gives rise to biliverdin and iron. [1] [2] The body then traps the released iron and stores it as hemosiderin in tissues. [3] Hemosiderin is also generated from the abnormal metabolic pathway of ferritin. [3]
Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation is a heterogenous group of inherited neurodegenerative diseases, still under research, in which iron accumulates in the basal ganglia, either resulting in progressive dystonia, parkinsonism, spasticity, optic atrophy, retinal degeneration, neuropsychiatric, or diverse neurologic abnormalities. [1]
The human brain is the central organ of the nervous system, and with the spinal cord, comprises the central nervous system. It consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. The brain controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sensory nervous system ...
Superficial hemosiderosis of the central nervous system is a disease of the brain resulting from chronic iron deposition in neuronal tissues associated with cerebrospinal fluid. This occurs via the deposition of hemosiderin in neuronal tissue, and is associated with neuronal loss, gliosis , and demyelination of neuronal cells.
Photomicrograph of neuromelanin (brown material) in a neuron of the substantia nigra. Hematoxylin and eosin stain. The scale bar is 20 microns (0.02mm) in length. Neuromelanin gives specific brain sections, such as the substantia nigra or the locus coeruleus, distinct color. It is a type of melanin and similar to other forms of peripheral melanin.