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Kidney complications in diabetes often progress silently, putting patients at risk of life-threatening outcomes long before any symptoms appear. A new study offers a promising solution. Researchers found that two simple blood markers—estimated glomerular filtration rate difference (eGFRdiff) and growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) levels—can independently predict kidney disease progression and mortality in people with diabetes. "Currently, eGFR and urinary albumin, which are commonly used in routine clinical practice, are not sufficient to accurately predict kidney outcomes in individuals with diabetes," says Dr. Gohda. The research team analyzed data from 638 Japanese adults living with diabetes mellitus. Participants were observed for...

Annual health checkups regularly include urine tests that serve several purposes, including checking for symptoms of kidney disease. The presence of albumin in the urine is one indicator, as is glomerular filtration rate (GFR). In diabetic nephropathy, albuminuria first appears, leading to excessive filtration and eventually a decrease in GFR. In the elderly, however, excessive filtration cannot be detected due to age-related GFR decline. To accurately assess GFR, researchers have come up with a new calculation method. The group led by Dr. Akihiro Tsuda, a lecturer, assessed 180 kidney transplant donor candidates to define a new formula for determining the...

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of soft tissue cancer. Scientists studied the population of cells that persists after therapy, causing rhabdomyosarcoma recurrence. They found that these cells mirror an early developmental state that responds to EGFR inhibitors. The work presents a strategy for targeting the whole tumor that may apply to other pediatric cancers. Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common type of soft tissue sarcoma in children. After patients complete therapy, cancer cells can persist. These cells later multiply, causing the disease to recur. When this cancer recurs after therapy, it is much more difficult to treat. "As a developmental biologist I...

A clinical study on special diets at the University of Cologne shows promising results on the use of a ketogenic diet as a possible treatment for hereditary polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). This disease causes about 10% of all cases of kidney failure and is the most common hereditary kidney disease worldwide. In the KETO-ADPKD study, one of these dietary regimens—the ketogenic diet—was investigated as a treatment for polycystic kidney disease. The final results of the phase II-like study, which are now available, also showed that a switch to a ketogenic diet can have a positive effect on kidney function of...

Hemoglobin glycation index (HGI) is a novel risk factor for incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the general population, according to a study. Yasuto Nakasone, M.D. and colleagues examined the impact of HGI as a predictor for incident CKD in the general population in a study using data from 23,467 CKD-free individuals followed for a mean of 5.1 years. The researchers found that CKD developed in 2,540 individuals, and following low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), HGI was the second most robust predictor for CKD. The hazard ratio of HGI for CKD was 1.293 after adjustment for 11 covariates, including...

Inorganic nitrate reduces contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN), improves renal outcomes and reduces cardiac events compared to placebo in patients at risk of renal injury undergoing coronary angiography for acute coronary syndrome, according to research. CIN, also termed contrast associated-acute kidney injury, refers to a deterioration in renal function after contrast exposure and is a serious complication of coronary angiography. Research has suggested that nitric oxide is deficient in CIN; therefore, strategies to replace nitric oxide might be of benefit. The NITRATE-CIN trial examined the efficacy of inorganic nitrate for the prevention of CIN in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome...

The FDA-approved lung cancer drug osimertinib (sold under the brand name Tagrisso) slashes the risk of death by 51% for certain patients whose cancer is caught early, according to new trial data. “This should be the new standard of care for these patients,” Nathan Pennell, co-director of the Cleveland Clinic Lung Cancer Program, who wasn’t involved in the drug’s development, said in a statement for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The drug: Lung cancer is the second-most common cancer in the world, with 2.2 million new diagnoses every year. The vast majority fall into a category called “non-small cell...

Renal hyperfiltration may be an underestimated risk factor for mortality, according to research. Conventionally, diminished kidney function is linked to chronic kidney disease and elevated risk of mortality. Renal hyperfiltration (RHF), or increased kidney function, has been largely dismissed as a normal observation in the general population and an expected manifestation of diabetes mellitus where it precedes renal decline. The condition, devoid of clinical manifestations, remains unknown to general medicine and is primarily screened and managed within the context of diabetes mellitus. Two recent studies reveal that the harms of RHF might be highly underestimated, independent of diabetes mellitus. The...

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is the best overall index of kidney function. Normal GFR varies according to age, sex, and body size, and declines with age. The National Kidney Foundation recommends using the CKD-EPI Creatinine Equation (2021) to estimate GFR. NKF and the American Society of Nephrology have convened a Task Force to focus on the use of race to estimate GFR.

A pilot human clinical trial conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine as precursors of the natural antioxidant glutathione—could improve many age-associated defects in older humans. The results of this study show that older humans taking GlyNAC for 24 weeks saw improvements in many characteristic defects of aging, including glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, body fat, genomic toxicity, muscle strength, gait speed, exercise capacity and cognitive function. The benefits declined after stopping supplementation for 12 weeks. GlyNAC supplementation was well tolerated during the...

A study in mice has found that stress and tissue damage initiated by angiotensin II, a molecule that is known to increase blood pressure and stiffening in the linings of blood vessels, leads to cellular senescence, a process by which a cell ages and permanently stops dividing but does not die. Importantly, when the researchers eliminated senescent cells from the mice, tissues returned to a normal state in spite of a continued infusion of angiotensin II. We've known that angiotensin II can lead to hypertension and cellular damage, but our findings show that chronic, stress-induced damage due to slightly elevated...

A study has revealed that obesity is likely to cause an increased risk of kidney disease. The findings suggest that tackling obesity could have a powerful impact on kidney health. Most of the previous studies have been unable to explain if the relationship between obesity and renal disease was little more than an association. However, through a technique called Mendelian Randomisation—which groups people according to a genetic code randomly assigned at birth and removes any bias—they found that increasing values of genetically predicted BMI and WC were causally associated with the measures of kidney function. The team were able to...

CKD patients with renal failure (stages 2, 3, 4) were recruited as volunteers for a randomized double blind and placebo control pilot study. All patients suffered from diabetic nephropathy and hypertension. All patients were asked to keep their habits and medication as usual and were dispatched into two groups: experimental and placebo. The GSE group was daily supplemented with six capsules of GSE, each capsule containing 350 mg of grape seed powder. Two bottles, 90 capsules each were provided to each patient for one month during the entire six months long study. The placebo group received starch. GSE was processed...

A review published in the Journal of Internal Medicine provides convincing evidence that micronutrients—including iron, selenium, zinc, copper, and coenzyme Q10—can impact the function of cardiac cells' energy-producing mitochondria to contribute to heart failure. The findings suggest that micronutrient supplementation could represent an effective treatment for heart failure. "Micronutrient deficiency has a high impact on mitochondrial energy production and should be considered an additional factor in the heart failure equation, moving our view of the failing heart away from "an engine out of fuel" to "a defective engine on a path to self-destruction," said co–lead author Nils Bomer, Ph.D., of...