Therapeutic hemin

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ONC-017125",
  "term": "Therapeutic hemin",
  "field": "Oncology and biomedicine",
  "definition": "A sterile, lyophilized powder of hemin, the Fe3+ oxidation product of heme (Fe2+), derived from processed red blood cells. Therapeutic hemin appears to inhibit delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) synthetase, a rate-limiting enzyme in the porphyrin/heme biosynthetic pathway, resulting in inhibition of the hepatic and/or marrow synthesis of porphyrin precursors. The mechanism by which therapeutic hematin produces symptomatic improvement in patients with acute episodes of the hepatic porphyrias has not been determined.",
  "references": [
    "National Cancer Institute Thesaurus"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/oncology/therapeutic-hemin/"
}