Ferroportin and Ceruloplasmin: Structure and Function in Health and Disease

Dear Colleagues,

In the last years, our understanding of the role of proteins involved in the handling of iron in health and disease had tremendously advanced  due to the efforts of many research groups around the world. Two proteins playing a key role in the cellular management of iron are ferroportin, the only known cellular iron exporter in mammals, and ceruloplasmin, a multifunctional enzyme with ferroxidase activity. A strong connection between ferroportin and ceruloplasmin was uncovered and they can be viewed as a system of functionally interacting partners. The importance of both proteins is underscored by the finding that mutations in each cause iron imbalance leading to pathological states, particularly severe in the case of aceruloplasminemia which belongs to the neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) group.

This Special Issue of IJMS will focus on recent advances regarding different aspects of ferroportin and ceruloplasmin biology in health and disease: molecular structure and mechanism of action, regulation of expression, interactions with other proteins, exploitation as drug targets, and roles in other pathological states where iron status is altered (e.g., infection and inflammation, cancer, etc.). Original papers and review articles on these and related topics are welcome.

Dr. Giovanni Musci
Dr. Maria Carmela Bonaccorsi Di Patti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.