Promising Drug For Kidney Failure Fails in Large Clinical Trial‎

A drug known as sulodexide has failed to show any benefit toward halting kidney failure in people with diabetes and an international trial has been stopped early, a US medical journal said Thursday.

The drug, once seen as a potentially promising treatment to reduce protein in the urine, is made by New York-based Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, which also funded the study that was meant to include more than 2,240 patients worldwide.

Acute Renal (Kidney) Failure- Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment and Complications
Acute renal failure is the sudden cessation of the functioning of kidneys, that can be due to reduced renal blood flow, damage to renal tissues.

However, it was halted after 1,248 people enrolled because there was no difference seen in preventing kidney failure between patients who took sulodexide over a placebo, said the report in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The study was led by David Packham of the Melbourne Renal Research Group in Australia.

Given the latest results and a smaller study that ran previously, "it is tempting to conclude that sulodexide has no therapeutic benefit in type 2 diabetic nephropathy," the authors wrote.

Quiz on Kidney
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.

Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.

kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().

Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.

Kidneys also make hormones that help

Control your blood pressure
Make red blood cells
Keep your bones strong and healthy

Kidney disease is common in people with diabetes because high blood sugar can cause the organs to get overworked and eventually fail.

Cases of kidney disease are expected to rise globally in the coming years in parallel with diabetes, which is expected to affect 366 million people by 2030, researchers said.

Source-AFP