Sun May 18 18:11:35 UTC 2025: Here’s a news article summarizing the provided text, focusing on the scientific breakthrough:
**BITS Pilani Hyderabad Researchers Develop Plant-Based Therapy for Iron Overload**
**HYDERABAD, India – May 18, 2025** – Researchers at the BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus have announced the development of a plant-based therapeutic formulation offering a potentially safer and more accessible alternative for Iron Chelation Therapy (ICT). This breakthrough could significantly impact the treatment of iron overload, a growing concern in India, particularly among patients with Thalassemia and Sickle cell Anemia requiring frequent blood transfusions.
Iron overload, if left untreated, can cause severe damage to vital organs. While the current gold standard for ICT, Deferoxamine (DFO), is effective, it suffers from drawbacks like poor oral bioavailability, high cost, and significant side effects.
The research team, led by Trinath Jamma and including Onkar Kulkarni, Ramakrishnan Ganesan, Jayati Ray Dutta, Pranathi Tata and Aparajita Ghosh, has developed a novel formulation that has demonstrated superior performance to DFO in animal studies. The plant-inspired complex effectively removes excess iron while exhibiting lower systemic toxicity.
“By harnessing the natural chelating ability of polyphenols to bind to iron and combining it with natural organic compounds, the formulation offers a biocompatible, affordable, and safer therapeutic alternative,” explained Mr. Ganesan.
Researchers believe this development marks a significant step forward in green and patient-centric drug development, potentially revolutionizing iron overload management both in India and worldwide. The research findings have been published in the American Chemical Society Journal, ‘Molecular Pharmaceutics’. The research offers a glimmer of hope for over 100,000 Thalassemia major patients in India who require continuous ICT to manage iron toxicity.
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