Iron’s activity in the body can be two-faced. On the one hand it is integral to many enzymatic reactions; on the other hand it is toxic, with a great capacity for cellular damage. This review examines iron in the brain through the lens of multiple sclerosis (MS), reviewing the functions of intracellular and extracellular iron and their impact on the disease, as well as highlighting the focus of...

Hallervorden and Spatz first described, in a sibship of 12, five sisters with clinically increasing dysarthria and progressive dementia, whose brains showed a brown discoloration of the globus pallidus and substantia nigra. Subsequently the basis has been shown to be a neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation or pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration due to mutations in the pant...

Neurons, as non-dividing cells, encounter a myriad of stressful conditions throughout their lifespan. In particular, there is increasing evidence that iron progressively accumulates in the brain with age and that iron induced oxidative stress is the cause of several forms of neurodegeneration. Here, we review recent evidence that gives support to the following notions: 1) neuronal iron accumula...

UNLABELLED Age-related memory impairments have been associated with structural changes in the dopaminergic system, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recent work indicates that iron accumulation might be of particular relevance. As iron accumulates, a degeneration of myelin sheaths has been observed in the elderly, but the relationship between both and their impact on memory performa...