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Deciphering the link between Iron and Brain Disease

Aceruloplasminemia is a very rare, genetic disease accompagnied with iron accumulation that causes movement disorder and brain damage at early age.


There are many questions about this disease. Which form of iron accumulates in the brain when neurodegenerative disease strikes? And how does it cause the brain damage? 

Combining Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, MRI and magnetometry, an interdisciplinary team of Leiden and the Erasmus MC determined a pattern  of iron distribution that differs from other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers. 

Insight into the mechanism of the way iron interferes with the brain is the next step to be researched. The researchers published their findings in the journal Neuroimage: Clinical.

Lena H.P. Vroegindeweij, Lucia Bossoni, Agnita J.W. Boon, J.H. Paul Wilson, Marjolein Bulk, Jacqueline Labra-Muñoz, Martina Huber, Andrew Webb, Louise van der Weerd, Janneke G. Langendonk, 'Quantification of different iron forms in the aceruloplasminemia brain to explore iron-related neurodegeneration', NeuroImage: Clinical, 30, 2021, 102657

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