AMT reaches another milestone in the official marketing authorisation process for Glybera
February 01, 2016
Transferrin is a crucially important protein responsible for transporting iron in the bloodstream and delivering it to cells that need it - particularly the cells that develop into red blood cells. "Yelena [now a researcher at the New York Blood Center in New York City] hypothesized that too little transferrin in the circulation may account for the reduced red cell production and anemia observed in beta thalassemia," says Dr. Fabry. "So she decided to see if injections of transferring - obtainable as a byproduct of blood collection - could help in treating thalassemia."
In the present study, the researchers gave the beta thalassemia mice daily injections of human transferrin for 60 days. The results were impressive.
"The injected transferrin killed three birds with one stone," says Dr. Fabry. "It not only helped in depleting the iron overload that can be so toxic, but it recycled that iron into new red blood cells that ameliorated the anemia. Plus, those red cells survived for a longer time because they had fewer defects."
The Einstein researchers are cautiously optimistic that transferrin could have similar benefits for people.
"Before doing clinical trials, we need to work out a lot of details such as the proper dose of transferrin and the frequency of treatment," says Eric E. Bouhassira, Ph.D., another author of the study who is professor cell biology and of medicine and the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Einstein. "But transferrin's striking effectiveness in reducing iron overload makes me hopeful that people with anemia could really benefit from it."
The paper, "Transferrin therapy ameliorates disease in beta-thalassemic mice," appears in the January 24 online edition of Nature Medicine.
Source: Albert Einstein College of Medicine