Oct 30, 2009

Discovery of a new therapeutic method to prevent the progress of a chronic kidney disease

Prof. Takaaki Abe, Division of Medical Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering working in collaboration with a group of researchers including Prof. T. Soga of the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, has discovered a new therapeutic target of chronic kidney disease “OATP-R” in a kidney. The OATP-R possesses the ability to reduce the accumulation of uremic toxins, however, its effect diminishes under the condition of renal failure. This research group has discovered that various statins, used as hypolipidemics, upregulate the expression of OATP-R, thus, intake of those statins leads to accrual of OATP-R to discharge uremic toxins out of a body and improve organ dysfunction. This research has developed a new therapeutic method to prevent the progress of renal failure including introduction of dialysis.

The article of this discovery was published in the electronic version of Journal of American Society of Nephrology on October 29. http://jasn.asnjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ASN.2009070696