Recent Developments Centered on Orally Active Iron Chelators

Over the past twenty years there has been a growing interest in the orally active iron chelators, deferiprone and deferasirox, both have been extensively studied. The ability of these compounds to mobilize iron from the heart and endocrine tissue has presented the clinician with some advantages over desferrioxamine, the first therapeutic iron chelator. Other orally active iron chelators are currently under development. The critical features necessary for the design of therapeutically useful orally active iron chelators are presented in this review, together with recent studies devoted to the design of such chelators. This newly emerging range of iron chelators will enable clinicians to apply iron chelation methodology to other disease states and to begin to design personalized chelation regimes.