cause of rls: Iron doesn't pass blood-brain barrier

[silkyreg]

this is a very interesting article. scientists suspect a malfunktion in the body so iron can't pass the blood-brain barrier.

neurologia.com/articulo/201...

others found that the mitochondria of rls patients are not working correctly

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/303...

#rls

#restlesslegs

[Hidden]

Thanks, good articles. I note in fact, unless I've misinterpreted, that BOTH studies implicate Mitochondia in RLS . The first article suggests that iron passing the blood brain barrier is NOT a problem, citing cases where some RLS sufferers actually had excess brain iron.

This contradicts previous theories of Brain Iron Deficiency causing RLS and even suggests that Iron infusions may actually be harmful.

This is a recent study, 2019 and I will read further when I have time.

Well spotted!

[Madlegs1]

Thankyou for a most interesting link. I highlight their conclusion, which should be brought to the attention of any consultant dealing with rls.

"We suggest performing a brain MRI to quantify the brain iron content in RLS patients. It should be mandatory before an iron intravenous treatment is proposed, as there could be some RLS patients with increased brain iron content, but normal or low serum iron levels, and this treatment could be harmful. Further studies should investigate this hypothesis."

Thanks again.

[Joolsg in reply to Madlegs1]

Worrying because some people may have had infusions when their brain iron was already high. Fascinating article. We need more money for more research- when you think of the money spent on researching other neurological diseases- we really are the poor relations.

[Joolsg]

Thanks for sharing. The first article actually states iron infusions could be dangerous for RLS sufferers as some of us have excess brain iron. It recommends MRI before any infusion. This is fascinating.

[Hidden in reply to Joolsg]

Interesting also that both studies suggest that RLS is affected by mitochondrial iron deficiency, rather than "brain" deficiency, which is much more specific and might suggest a possible treatment that targets the mitochondria, as, apparently, dopaminergic agents partly do.

[Eryl]

Another possible explanation is that iron levels are not the cause of rls, but in many cases a result of an imbalanced gut microbiome which is caused by diet, which also causes rls. So low iron is another symptom, not a cause.

[ironbrain]

I noted articles on what I like to call mitochondria iron hogging a year or two back.

I tend now to believe RLS is an autoimmune disease (probably involving the likes of interleukin 17) for which we are still lacking a good understanding. IL-17 blockers cost around $2,000 a month as far as I can determine, so I'm not expecting them to be handed out on the NHS too regularly too soon. (They're currently only licensed for psoriasis.) It might cost more than 40 hospitals to provide them for people with any form of autoimmune disease!