{"id":40319,"date":"2016-11-17T09:13:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=40319"},"modified":"2016-11-17T09:13:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T14:13:13","slug":"researchers-identify-pathway-important-for-kidney-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2016\/11\/17\/researchers-identify-pathway-important-for-kidney-function\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Identify Pathway Important for Kidney Function"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Boston University researchers, in collaboration with Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) at Pfizer Inc., have discovered a novel molecular pathway needed to regulate kidney podocytes&#8211;special octopus-like cells that are critical in maintaining normal kidney function.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, which appear in <em>JCI Insight<\/em>, may help identify a new drug target for chronic kidney diseases associated with podocyte loss.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40320\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40320\" style=\"width: 316px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2016\/11\/2613_Podocytes-636x485.jpg\" alt=\"podocyte_image\" class=\" wp-image-40320\" height=\"231\" width=\"306\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40320\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Podocyte rendering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThese findings are important because podocyte damage or loss often lead to chronic kidney disease and eventually kidney failure,\u201d said corresponding author Weining\u00a0Lu, MD, associate professor of medicine at BUSM.\u00a0\u201cThis study may one day impact patients with chronic kidney disease that often leads to kidney failure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Chronic kidney disease is one of the most common, non-communicable diseases responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is estimated that approximately 27 million people in the U.S. (13 percent of the population) and more than 500 million people worldwide suffer from this condition.\u00a0A significant proportion of patients with chronic kidney disease will eventually develop kidney failure and will need dialysis or kidney transplantation for survival.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers first identified several novel molecular components in a signaling pathway called ROBO2 in the podocyte. They then performed biochemical experiments and found that increased ROBO2 signaling activity caused more podocyte loss in cell culture plates. These tests were further validated in experiments comparing models with the ROBO2 gene to those \u00a0without the ROBO2 gene. The model without the ROBO2 gene retained more podocytes, while more podocytes were lost in the model with the ROBO2 gene.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first joint publication between BUSM\/BMC and CTI, a unique model for academic-industry collaboration that is designed to bridge the gap between early scientific discoveries and its translation into new medicines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Lu\u2019s identification of the novel role of ROBO2 has provided a key insight into mechanisms that may underlie and be responsible for chronic kidney disease,\u201d said CTI\u2019s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Anthony J. Coyle. \u201cAs a result, BUSM\/BMC and CTI are now working together to develop potential new medicines for chronic kidney disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis joint publication demonstrates that an academic-industry collaborative model has the potential to translate breakthrough science into novel medicines and generate new scientific knowledge that will benefit society,\u201d explained Lu.<\/p>\n<p>Funding for this study was provided by a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant R01DK078226, R01DK090029, a research grant from the Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation, a cooperative matching grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and was supported in part by Research Grant #1-FY12-426 from the March of Dimes Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A novel molecular pathway needed to regulate kidney podocytes has been discovered. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12772,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40323,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40319\/revisions\/40323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}