Iron (Fe) deposits begin to form in the brain cortex as we get older. Numerous studies point to the increasing accumulation of iron in the substantia nigra (SN) of the old human brain as a key risk factor for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative disorders; however, this is not the case for everyone. This is due to the fact that our body has prepared responses tailored precisely to an iron overload.
The neural response to excessive iron deposition, which is associated with age-related neurodegenerative illnesses, was investigated in a recent study that was jointly directed by Professor Taejoon Kwon and Professor Hyung Joon Cho in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNIST.
The research team identified a transcriptome profile of aging-related iron accumulation by using rats of different ages and confirming their iron accumulation using magnetic resonance images. This was accomplished by investigating the response of neurons in the SN against age-related iron accumulation. After conducting more tests on animals as well as tests on cell lines, the researchers came to the conclusion that two genes (CLU and HERPUD1) responded to the age-related accumulation of iron and that the silencing of these genes drastically reduced the cellular tolerance for iron toxicity.
According to the study group, “We hypothesize that knowledge of the gene expression landscape during age-related iron accumulation can assist us in elucidating molecular pathways and prospective prophylactic methods against neurodegenerative disorders.”
Their findings were presented in an article that was included in the September 2022 issue of Aging Cell, which is an open-access journal that is published by John Wiley & Sons. This research was made possible thanks to grants from the Global Ph.D. Fellowship and the University Key Research Institute (UKRI) programs, both of which are administered by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). In addition to that, it has received assistance in the form of funds from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) and the UNIST.
