An event that hasn’t happened before was demonstrated by researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School, colleagues in Germany, and the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), suggesting that regenerative treatment to restore damaged kidney function could be a sure possibility. In a preclinical study, the researchers discovered that suppressing the harmful and scar-regulating protein interleukin-11 (IL-11) allowed the damaged kidney cells to recover, restoring reduced kidney function caused by illness as well as acute injuries.
The protein is involved in pushing a cascade of molecular processes that occur in response to kidney damage, resulting in inflammation, fibrosis, also known as scarring, and loss of function. In addition, they discovered that blocking IL-11 with a neutralising antibody can halt and even restore kidney damage in this situation.
More precisely, the researchers discovered that in reaction to kidney damage, renal tubular cells, which line the tiny tubes within the kidneys, release IL-11. It initiates a signaling cascade that results in increased activation of a gene known as Snail Family Transcriptional Repressor 1 (SNAI1), which inhibits cell growth and increases the possibility of kidney misfunctioning.
Turning off this method in a preclinical model of human diabetic kidney disease by way of administering an antibody that binds to IL-11 resulted in the proliferation of kidney tubule cells and the reversal of fibrosis as well as inflammation, making way for the regeneration of the injured kidney and also the restoration of renal function.
While clinical trials pertaining to an antibody that attaches to another pro-fibrotic molecule known as transforming growth factor-beta were unsuccessful, this novel technique offers the possibility of a new target.