Evaluation of liver enzymes,interleukin-6 and tumer necrosis factor-alpha in children suffering from thalassemia and treated with Deferoxamine and Deferasirox drug in Kirkuk city

Abstract

Background and objective: Thalassemia It is a genetic disease caused by a disorder in the synthesis of the globin chain that leads to a low level of hemoglobin, and frequent blood transfusions lead to an overload of iron, which interferes with the metabolism and leads to tissue and organ damage. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the iron chelator deferasirox deferoxamine on liver enzyme activities (aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase), the level of the cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the serum of thalassemia patients.

Methods: The study was conducted in the Thalassemia Center at Azadi Teaching Hospital, Kirkuk , Iraq , from November 2021 to April 2022 . It included 90 Thalassemia patients (Group 1: 30 patients treated with deferrocirox , Group 2: 30 treated with deferoxamine , Group 3: 30 who were not treated with any iron chelator) and 20 healthy individuals (control group) and their ages were (1-6 years).

Results: Patients treated with deferoxamine had higher serum levels of AST, ALT, IL-6, TNF-α compared to deferoxamine-treated and untreated patients and the control group.

Conclusion: Our results in our current study showed that both the iron chelators deferasirox and deferoxamine affect liver enzymes and raise the levels of cytokines, although deferasirox was more effective than deferoxamine.