Iron Responsive Elements (IREs) serve as the main control mechanism for iron metabolism in the cell via their interaction with the Iron Regulatory Proteins (IRPs). A disruption of the IRE/IRP interaction could greatly affect iron metabolism, especially in iron-rich tissue such as cardiac cells. In this presentation we report that anthracyclines, a class of clinically useful chemotherapeutic drugs, specifically interact with the IREs of ferritin heavy and light chains. We characterized this interaction through UV melting, fluorescence quenching, and drug-RNA footprinting. Results from these experiments suggest that anthracyclines do indeed interact with the IRE hairpin-loop structures in a strong and sequence specific manner. This interaction may contribute to the aberration of intracellular iron homeostasis upon anthracycline exposure.