Emerging treatments
Cellular iron transport inhibition
Inhibiting intestinal uptake of iron would be an innovative way to decrease the iron overload in hemochromatosis. Therapeutic administration of hepcidin, a peptide hormone that plays an important role in iron homeostasis, would be expected to decrease intestinal iron absorption and diminish iron release from macrophages. As such, hepcidin analogs have been proposed as a new therapy.[55][56] Initial studies suggest that this approach will be more appropriate for maintenance therapy than induction therapy, as these drugs do not decrease iron storage in the liver.[57]
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