Polycystic Kidney Disease News and Research

Latest Polycystic Kidney Disease News and Research

RA drug reduces kidney cyst growth in ADPKD mouse model

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that patients with an inherited kidney disease may be helped by a drug that is currently available for other uses.

28 Oct 2011

Clues into how gene defects may cause ARPKD in babies

Babies born with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) often develop kidney failure because they have very large kidneys filled with tiny cysts. Even with excellent medical care, about 30% die shortly after birth. New research now provides clues into how gene defects may cause this condition, which occurs in 1 out of 20,000 newborns.

22 Oct 2011

Intellikine commences INK1117 Phase I dose escalation study in cancer

Intellikine, Inc., a company focused on the discovery and development of innovative, small molecule drugs targeting the PI3K/mTOR pathway, announced today that the first patient has been treated in a Phase I dose escalation study of INK1117 in patients with advanced solid malignancies.

12 Oct 2011

Mayo Clinic and IC-MedTech enter collaborative research agreement with Summa Health System

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic and representatives from IC-MedTech signed a collaborative research agreement with Summa Health System to study the usage of Apatone, a proprietary combination of Vitamin-C and Vitamin-K3.

2 Sep 2011

Study: Dyslexia gene controls cilia in brain neurons

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that a gene linked to dyslexia has a surprising biological function: it controls cilia, the antenna-like projections that cells use to communicate.

20 Jun 2011

Targeting activity of PKD1 may be beneficial for treatment of polycystic kidney, liver disease

A single gene is central in the development of several forms of polycystic kidney and liver disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the June 19 issue of Nature Genetics.

20 Jun 2011

Oncogene Aurora A may contribute to polycystic kidney disease

The Aurora A kinase may contribute to polycystic kidney disease (PKD) by inactivating a key calcium channel in kidney cells, according to a study in the June 13 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology.

13 Jun 2011

Research provides new insights into how cilia are assembled on the cell surface

Body cells detect signals that control their behavior through tiny hairs on the cell surface called cilia. Serious diseases and disorders can result when these cilia do not work properly.

9 Jun 2011

Stem cells from kidneys - World first from Australian scientists

According to Australian scientists, their latest stem cell research breakthrough will bring new treatments for a growing epidemic of chronic kidney disease. They are the first in the world to generate a type of stem cell from human kidney cells. The Melbourne scientists are hoping their discovery will have far-reaching effects in treating the disease.

19 May 2011

Scientists make human stem cells without working on human embryos

Stem cell research courts both controversy and support in the community- depending on your viewpoint.

17 May 2011

New discoveries on polycystin-1 can lead to novel kidney disease treatment

Two discoveries at UC Santa Barbara point to potential new drug therapies for patients with kidney disease. The findings are published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Apr 2011

Scientists reveal unknown role of cilia protein IFT88 in mitosis

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have described a previously unknown role for the cilia protein IFT88 in mitosis, the process by which a dividing cell separates its chromosomes containing the cell's DNA into two identical sets of new daughter cells.

5 Apr 2011

Researchers discover new gene for Sensenbrenner syndrome

Dutch researchers of the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen found a new gene for Sensenbrenner syndrome (Journal of Medical Genetics, 2011 Mar 4). The mutation adds support to the hypothesis that defects in ciliar transport are the cause of the disease. Project leader Dr. Heleen H. Arts is supported by a Kolff Junior Postdoc Grant of the Dutch Kidney Foundation.

14 Mar 2011

Intellikine, PKD Foundation to investigate novel therapies for patients with PKD

Intellikine, a leader in the development of small molecule drugs targeting the PI3K/mTOR pathway, and the PKD Foundation today announced a collaboration to investigate novel, orally-available small molecule kinase inhibitors of the TORC1 and TORC2 complexes as a potential treatment for patients with polycystic kidney disease.

11 Feb 2011

Functional tests are necessary to understand human disease despite genetic sequencing

Despite what you might have heard, genetic sequencing alone is not enough to understand human disease. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have shown that functional tests are absolutely necessary to understand the biological relevance of the results of sequencing studies as they relate to disease, using a suite of diseases known as the ciliopathies which can cause patients to have many different traits.

24 Jan 2011

OSEO awards €10.4 million to DIPPAL project targeting Alzheimer's disease

The biotech companies PHARNEXT and BIOSYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, the Bordeaux Hospital where CMRR is located, the university Bordeaux Segalen and Inserm (the center U897 "Epidemiology and Biostatistics") have joined forces to carry out the DIPPAL2i project. This innovative research and industrial development project is targeting Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has attracted significant financial support from OSEO (the French state innovation agency).

18 Nov 2010

Diabetic drug may retard growth of fluid-filled cysts in PKD: Research

Researchers report that a drug commonly used to treat diabetes may also retard the growth of fluid-filled cysts of the most common genetic disorder, polycystic kidney disease.

12 Nov 2010

Study finds new therapeutic target for polycystic kidney disease

In work suggesting a new approach to treating polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a leading cause of kidney failure, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston were able to block the formation of fluid-filled cysts, the hallmark of the disease, in a mouse model. Their findings, using a compound that inhibits a receptor known as c-Met, will be published in the September 13th online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

14 Sep 2010

PLX4032 trial shows high degree of selectivity to achieve tumor shrinkage

Plexxikon today announced publication of key data in this week's edition of Nature demonstrating that the high degree of selectivity of PLX4032 (RG7204) enables substantial RAF/MEK/ERK pathway inhibition, which may be necessary to achieve significant tumor shrinkage and clinical response in patients with BRAF mutant melanoma.

8 Sep 2010

Data from PLX4032 Phase 1 clinical trial in melanoma patients with BRAF mutation published

Plexxikon today announced publication of data from the Phase 1 clinical trial of PLX4032 (RG7204), confirming that treatment of metastatic melanoma patients with the BRAF V600E mutation resulted in significant tumor shrinkage in the majority of patients. Specifically, in the melanoma extension cohort of the study, nearly all patients showed some response; 81 percent of patients had tumor shrinkage of at least 30 percent.

26 Aug 2010