Spanish researchers, specifically the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, in Madrid, have found a molecule that is capable of acting as a protective agent for the kidneys against kidney damage that can cause the toxicity of drugs used against cancer, in cases of serious infections and also in transplants. It is about cilastatin, as reported in a press release on the website of the regional government, madrid.org.
This public hospital, which belongs to the Madrid Health Service and stands out, among other things, for its teaching and research capacity, has already patented this molecule, which is going to become the first nephroprotector developed in the world and which will aim to help prevent so-called ‘acute renal failure’ in patients – the kidney is unable to effectively carry out its function of filtering the blood. In more than 40% of cases, this failure is due to the side effects of certain medical and pharmacological treatments.
In the photo, researchers from the Gregorio Marañón Nephrology Service Physiopathology Laboratory, made up of Alberto Tejedor, Alberto Lázaro, María Ángeles González-Nicolás, Sonia Camaño and Blanca Humanes.
The team has succeeded in showing that cilastatin protects the kidney in more than 80% of cases against the toxic elements contained in drugs that are widely used – and effective – in treatments used against cancers and infections and in transplants and that sometimes can involve even the interruption of treatment, with the serious consequences that this can have for the patient.
Among the latter drugs is, for example, cisplatin, a powerful drug used in chemotherapy and whose nephrotoxic effect can be an important complication and a limiting factor in terms of the dose to be used in cancer therapy. According to this research, cilastatin has protective effects against cisplatin-induced kidney damage, by inhibiting apoptosis and oxidation.
Once all the necessary preclinical tests have been carried out, the researchers from the Madrid health center, which is a national and international reference in various specialties, continue working, in collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company Spherium Biomed, with the aim of bringing this drug to the clinical practice .
Acute kidney failure
The kidneys, fundamental organs in the urinary system, are responsible for filtering, in an adult who enjoys good health, about two hundred liters of blood each day to produce up to two liters of urine. Through this process, they are responsible for excreting waste substances from the body. When the kidneys fail due to ‘acute kidney failure’, we lose the ability to eliminate these wastes and this can lead to chronic disease or even death .
“Acute renal failure is recurrent and complicated due to its appearance as a secondary effect not only of chronic diseases, mainly diabetes, but also as a result of pharmacological and medical treatments that used to be considered safe”, highlights the press release. “In fact, more than 40% of acute kidney failure is related to damage caused by side effects of pharmacological or medical treatments ,” he adds. Hence the importance of a protective drug such as cilastatin.
The Health Research Institute of the Hospital Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), within which the entire study on cilastatin has been developed, is conceived as a nucleus of multidisciplinary and translational biomedical research in which basic, clinical, and epidemiological research are integrated and in health services. In this way, it stands out for its scientific activity, which, in 2016 alone, was translated into 721 publications. Likewise, the hospital has 47 research groups divided into seven areas. Last year it had 297 active research projects and 1,017 clinical studies .
Image: Hospital Gregorio Marañón
