Great news! A new drug called sparsentan has shown positive results for people with a type of kidney disease.
It reduced the level of protein in the urine more than a standard treatment.
This news was shared in The Lancet journal and at a health conference in Thailand.
Understanding Kidney Disease
The disease is called IgA nephropathy, or Berger’s disease. It’s when a kind of antibody called IgA builds up in the kidneys. This causes inflammation and scarring.
Normally, IgA helps us fight off infections. But in people with this disease, it can harm the kidneys. Over ten years, about one in four patients can end up with serious kidney problems.
Professor Hiddo Lambers Heerspink, a leading researcher in the Netherlands, said, “IgA nephropathy is a long-term kidney disease that has no cure.
So it’s very important to slow down further damage to the kidneys by reducing proteinuria. The data shows that sparsentan can help do this.”
What the Study Looked At
The study, called PROTECT, compared sparsentan with a standard treatment called irbesartan. It included 280 patients with IgA nephropathy.
The study measured changes in the amount of protein in the patients’ urine. This is called the urine protein/creatinine (UP/C) ratio.
A high UP/C ratio means that there’s too much protein in the urine, which isn’t good for the kidneys.
The Study’s Findings
The results were clear. The patients who took sparsentan had a 49.8% decrease in their UP/C ratio. But the patients who took irbesartan had only a 15.1% decrease.
Sparsentan also had a similar safety profile to irbesartan. Changes in body weight and blood pressure were also similar between the two groups.
Excitement for the Future
Professor Vlado Perkovic, a kidney health expert in Sydney, said, “Sparsentan could bring great benefits for patients with IgA nephropathy. I look forward to seeing the difference this treatment could make.”
The PROTECT study will continue for another 110 weeks. The researchers will check if sparsentan not only reduces proteinuria, but also slows the decline of kidney function.
The George Institute for Global Health, which is involved in the study, is dedicated to helping people with chronic kidney disease.
This condition affects about 10% of the world’s population. The institute hopes to improve treatment and care for these patients.
If you care about kidney health, please read studies about pesticides linked to chronic kidney disease, and this drug may prevent kidney failure in people with diabetes.
For more information about kidney health, please see recent studies about drug duo that may treat kidney failure, and results showing these vegetables may protect against kidney damage.
The study was published in The Lancet.
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