Cells use a little-known molecule to protect themselves from iron overload
Iron is essential.
Now, MIT associate professor of biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research member Ankur Jain; MIT assistant professor of biology and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research member Whitney Henry; and Pushkal Sharma PhD '26 have discovered that cells rely on an unexpected protector against this threat: small molecules called polyamines.
The researchers’ detailed findings, published Aug. 14 in the journal Cell , reveal that polyamines act like storage lockers for iron, safely holding the metal in a non-reactive state until cells need it.
These findings solve a decades-old mystery about why cells maintain such extraordinarily high levels of polyamines and uncover a previously unknown defense mechanism that protects cells from toxic iron overload.
This work could also help scientists develop better cancer treatments, by allowing iron overload to trigger cancer cell death. It could also offer new clues about diseases like early-onset Parkinson’s disease, in which mutations affect polyamine levels within neurons.
The Jain Lab studies RNA, the intermediary between DNA and the tiny molecular machines called proteins that perform most of the essential tasks inside cells. The lab is particularly interested in how RNA folds, misfolds, and sometimes clumps inside cells.