NCF In The News
Upstate Researcher Contributes to Study on Serious Kidney Disease
By Kevin Tampone, from the Central New York Business Journal…
SYRACUSE – A researcher at the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University played a role in discovering a gene linked to kidney disease that currently has no cure.
The researcher, Mira Krendel, contributed to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by scientists at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Italy. The group identified a new gene connected to the kidney disease Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in children, according to NephCure Foundation, a non¬profit that helped fund Krendel’s work.
The study identified mutations in a specific gene common to two families with multiple children who have been diagnosed with FSGS, according to NephCure.
The mutations prevent kidneys from fil¬tering waste properly, Krendel explains. That causes protein to end up in the pa¬tient’s urine.
“They wind up with kidney failure and need a transplant,” says Krendel, an assistant professor of cell and developmental biology at Upstate.
Ultimately, the hope is that doctors might be able to identify what specific genes are causing FSGS in individual patients through genetic testing, Krendel says. Therapies could then be determined based on that information.
Researchers are also exploring whether bacterial infections can cause the same chang¬es in kidneys as the mutant genes, she adds.
Krendel was one of the seven researchers who received a total of more than $1.7 million from NephCure as part of its 2009 Scientific Reasearch Grant Program. The foundation has committed more than $7 million to the research of kidney diseases in recent years.
Krendel received funding as part of a program aimed at aiding young scientists at the start of their careers, says Marilyn Hailperin, research and education manager at NephCure. The group, based in Berwyn, Pa., works to find the cause and cure of FSGS and another kidney disease, Nephrotic Syndrome.
The foundation funds research at the basic level and beyond. The hope is to eventually identify treatments that can move into clinical trials, Hailperin says.
About 5,400 people are diagnosed with FSGS each year, according to NephCure, and it is the second-leading cause of kidney failure in children. It attacks the kidney’s filtering system, causing scarring and allowing protein from blood to leak into urine.
There are more than 19,000 people living with end-stage renal disease due to FSGS, according to the foundation.
In addition to NephCure funding, Krendel says she received startup funds from SUNY Upstate. She worked on the research with four others at the university.
A new grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund further work with the research group in Italy, Krendel adds. The goal is to find more patients with possible kidney problems who could be screened for genetic mutation the scientists identified or others.