New Hope for Chronic Kidney Disorders

Korean researchers have developed a new treatment that can treat chronic kidney disorders.

On August 2, a research team led by Chonbuk National University Medical School Professor Park Sung-kwang, 51, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) biological science Professor Goh Gyu-young, 48, announced, “After injecting COMP-Ang 1, a blood vessel formation promoter, to mice with kidney disorders, we discovered the fact that inflammation of the kidney is inhibited and the disorder will not proceed any further.”

The results of this research were posted on the August 3 online edition of Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Until now, if a problem was found in the kidney little could be done, if at all, so even if it was found in the early stages, it would often deteriorate into chronic renal failure.

For patients suffering from chronic renal failure, there aren’t many options for treatment other than to go under dialysis or to receive a kidney transplant.

The research team found out that when COMP-Ang 1, a protein that promotes the formation of blood vessels, was injected into mice with kidney disorders, most of the damaged kidney vessels would be rebuilt and the inflammation would halt.

Professor Goh created COMP-Ang 1 with bioengineering venture company Genexel-Sein, and also found out that this protein is effective in treating leg and feet sores often found in diabetics, and published such research findings on the American Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in March of this year.

wolfkim@donga.com