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RAPID FREE IRON SCAVENGING. "In a healthy individual iron is largely intracellular, sequestered within ferritin or as a cofactor of heme complexed to hemoglobin within erythrocytes. Any extracellular free iron is rapidly bound by circulating transferrin. Hemoglobin or heme that is released as a result of natural erythrocyte lysis is captured by haptoglobin and hemopexin, respectively. Taken together, these factors ensure that vertebrate tissue is virtually devoid of free iron." https://lnkd.in/epJAeXg View in LinkedIn

STARVE THE INVADER. "The aerobic environment and neutral pH of serum ensures that extracellular iron is insoluble and hence difficult to access by invading pathogens. This difficulty is enhanced by the serum protein transferrin, which binds iron with an association constant of approximately 10(36).Taken together, these factors ensure that the amount of free iron available to invading bacteria is vastly less than what is required to replicate and cause disease." https://lnkd.in/epJAeXg View in LinkedIn

IRON MOAT. "Vertebrates are devoid of free iron, ensuring that all bacterial pathogens encounter a period of iron starvation upon entering their hosts. In keeping with this, bacterial pathogens have evolved to sense iron depletion as a marker of vertebrate tissue. This sensing typically involves transcriptional control mediated by the iron-dependent repressor known as Fur (ferric uptake regulator)." https://lnkd.in/epJAeXg View in LinkedIn

RAISE THE DRAWBRIDGE. "In cases of systemic infection, the organism responds by lowering its total serum iron, so as to make the serotransferrin present less saturated with iron...The iron apparently moves into the storage tissues from the circulation, and furthermore, it is withheld from circulation by the reticuloendothelial system." This results in low serum iron, high unsaturated iron binding, and more active serotransferrins. https://lnkd.in/e9yjFnc View in LinkedIn

IRON DEFENSES. "One of the first lines of defense against bacterial infection is the withholding of nutrients to prevent bacterial outgrowth in a process termed nutritional immunity. The most significant form of nutritional immunity is the sequestration of nutrient iron. The vast majority of vertebrate iron is intracellular, sequestered within the iron storage protein ferritin or complexed within the porphyrin ring of heme as a cofactor of hemoglobin or myoglobin." https://lnkd.in/epJAeXg View in LinkedIn

IRON, ZINC, MANGANESE -- are they keys to fighting infections and inflammatory diseases, and if so, how? http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1367593109001847 View in LinkedIn

HOARDING IRON. "Vertebrates sequester iron from invading pathogens, and conversely, pathogens express a variety of factors to steal iron from the host. Recent work has demonstrated that in addition to iron, vertebrates sequester zinc and manganese both intracellularly and extracellularly to protect against infection." https://lnkd.in/eUkYnw9 View in LinkedIn

IRON CONTROL IS DECISIVE. "The control over iron homeostasis is decisive in host–pathogen interaction...These multiple functional aspects of iron are based on its ability to transfer electrons needed during metabolic processes and to catalyze the formation of highly reactive radicals." https://lnkd.in/eBzy3XB View in LinkedIn

OBLIGATE IRON. "Iron is a vital nutrient for virtually all forms of life. The requirement for iron is based on its role in cellular processes ranging from energy generation and DNA replication to oxygen transport and protection against oxidative stress. Bacterial pathogens are not exempt from this iron requirement, as these organisms must acquire iron within their vertebrate hosts in order to replicate and cause disease." https://lnkd.in/epJAeXg View in LinkedIn

BLOOD IRON during a mock infection in humans drops very significantly in the first 24 hours, while hepticidin, an acute-phase protein, and inflammatory cytokines, react by sharply increasing in the same timeframe. Lovely time course charts. https://lnkd.in/eyMxbBN View in LinkedIn