When a kidney is injured, there is no curative treatment. Researchers have yet to understand how a kidney can be repaired and treated for disease, both prophylactically and post-injury. Currently, the underlying mechanism behind kidney cell repair is unknown.
Jianjie Ma, PhD, professor and Karl P. Klassen Chair of Thoracic Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, along with Brad Rovin, MD, professor and director of the Division of Nephrology at Ohio State, are studying methods of treatment for acute kidney injury.
In May, they received a $2.45 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to support a study titled “Targeting Cell Membrane Repair for Treatment of Acute Kidney Injury” through January 2021.
In 2006, Ma’s research group discovered MG53, a gene that has a vital function in cell membrane repair. MG53 is primarily studied in skeletal and cardiac muscle, but this newly funded study is extending the knowledge of MG53 in kidney protection.
Ma says this study has promising translational application. MG53 can potentially be a protein therapy for acute kidney injury. The protein can be applied intravenously to patients as a preventive medication before their scheduled cardiac surgery, chemotherapy or nephrotoxic drug treatments that may cause acute kidney injury. It also can be used as a treatment to improve kidney function after such events have already occurred.