Effect of Chelator Size & Charge on Iron(II) Release from Ferritin Nano Cage

Abstract

Fe(II) is essential but toxic when it’s free and excess. Excess iron is stored inside the ferritin, an intracellular iron storage protein. But how iron is released from ferritin is focus of our current work. Fe(II) chelators, ferrozine, bipyridine and phenantholine were used in this study to see the effect of size and charge on iron release. Negatively charged ferrozine released more iron compared to hydrophobic phenothroline. Excess concentration of reducing agent increased iron release from ferritin nanocage.