New possibility to prevent injury after kidney transplantation
A research group at IGP, headed by Bo Nilsson, has developed a novel drug which in preclinical trials was shown to mitigate organ injuries following kidney transplantation. The study was recently published in American Journal of Transplantation.
When an organ, for instance a kidney, is transplanted, injuries can occur when the organ is filled with blood again after being disconnected from the blood flow. This is called ischemia-reperfusion injury and it contributes to early graft dysfunction and long-term failure. Currently, effective therapies remain limited and ischemia-reperfusion injury in transplantation remains a significant clinical challenge with regard to both short-term and long-term complications.
In the present study, the researchers developed a new construct, PEG-LIPID, which they tested in animal models of kidney transplantation and found that it could mitigate ischemia-reperfusion injury.
“The construct that we developed aims to create a protective cell membrane barrier that prevents plasma proteins and cells of the immune system from recognising proteins exposed on the kidney cells. When we treated the transplanted kidneys with PEG-LIPID it consistently mitigated ischemia-reperfusion injury in three experimental models. This resulted in significantly improved function of the transplanted organs," says Bo Nilsson.
The researchers also performed in vitro cell studies to demonstrate the efficacy of PEG-LIPID in masking proteins on various cell types. In addition, no toxicity was observed, indicating the safety of the substance.
“To summarise, our results confirm that PEG-LIPID is a strong candidate drug to mitigate ischemia-reperfusion injury in clinical kidney transplantation," says Bo Nilsson.
The study was performed in collaboration with other research groups in Sweden, Japan, Austria and Germany.