KIM-1 driving chronic kidney disease

Kidney injury molecule 1, a protein that helps overcome acute kidney injury, now has been shown by Harvard Medical School researchers to trigger the onset of chronic kidney disease.¹ Companies modulating the target thus need to scrutinize the therapeutic window of their molecules.

The body typically repairs nonfibrotic kidney damage inflicted by acute toxic or ischemic insults without long-term sequelae. However, some patients who recover from an acute kidney injury are left with an increased risk for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), which manifests itself by fibrosis, impaired kidney parenchyma and cardiovascular malfunction.²...