pte20230214001 Medicine/Wellness, Research/Development
Interleukin-11 Inhibitors Effective in Mice – Potential Game Changer for Diabetes Therapy
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Artist’s rendering of a kidney (Illustration: Eksavang Khounphinith, pixabay.com) |
Interleukin (pte001/14.02.2023/06:00) –
Acute and chronic kidney diseases such as diabetes may be curable in the future. It has already been done in mice. scientists of Duke-NUS Medical School and des National Heart Centre Singapore did this by inhibiting the protein interleukin-11 (IL-11) with an antibody. This has allowed damaged kidney cells to regenerate and restore impaired kidney function due to disease and acute injury.
Fatal cascade in focus
Researchers Anissa Widjaja and Stuart Cook and kidney specialist Thomas Coffman have studied the effects of IL-11, which causes scarring in other organs, including the liver, lungs and heart, in acute and chronic kidney disease. It triggers a cascade of molecular processes in response to kidney damage, leading to inflammation, fibrosis (scarring), and loss of function.
“IL-11 impairs kidney function and leads to chronic kidney disease. We have also shown that anti-IL-11 therapy in mice with renal failure can reverse established chronic kidney disease and restore kidney function,” said Cook. Cells lining the tiny tubes in the kidneys release IL-11 in response to kidney damage. This turns on a signaling cascade that leads to increased expression of the Snail Family Transcriptional Repressor 1 gene, which halts cell growth and promotes kidney dysfunction.
Heal fibrosis and inflammation
In a preclinical model of human diabetic kidney disease, switching off this process by administering an antibody that binds to IL-11, rendering it ineffective, reversed fibrosis and inflammation and ultimately regenerated the damaged kidney and restored kidney function. “This might be a game changer in the management of chronic kidney disease,” Coffman said. “Kidney failure is a global epidemic,” Widjaja concludes.
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