New Hormone Could Lead to New Blood Disorder Treatments

A story today via News Medical is reporting that the discovery of a new hormone could help make treatment advances in blood disorders like anemia.  The hormone is called erthroferrone and its main function is to oversee the body’s iron supply to make red blood cells. Iron is the main component of hemoglobin that helps transport oxygen through your body and is needed for a consistent blood flow.

The discovery was found by a UCLA research team and first reported in the online journal Nature Genetics.

“If there is too little iron, it causes anemia. If there is too much iron, the iron overload accumulates in the liver and organs, where it is toxic and causes damage,” said senior author Dr. Tomas Ganz, a professor of medicine and pathology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Modulating the activity of erythroferrone could be a viable strategy for the treatment of iron disorders of both overabundance and scarcity.”

The research team believes this discovery could help people with congenital blood disorders like thalassemia.  Thalassemia destroys the body’s needed red blood cells in the bone marrow and patients regularly rely on blood transfusions. Iron overload is can be mainly attributed to the iron they receive in transfused blood but even patients who are rarely transfused can also develop iron overload.

“The identification of erythroferrone can potentially allow researchers and drug developers to target the hormone for specific treatment to prevent iron overload in Cooley’s anemia, ” said study author Elizabeta Nemeth, a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and co-director of the UCLA Center for Iron Disorders.

This article just showcases one of many great new research advances in blood disorders.

Photo Credit – UCLA College of Medicine

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