Latest Advances in Kidney Treatment

More promising news today. All nine patients with advanced kidney cancer in an early-phase trial of a personalized therapeutic vaccine had successful anti-cancer immune responses and remained cancer-free approximately 3 years after treatment. In the trial, a personalized cancer vaccine (PCV) was designed to find and destroy specific mutated cells that drive tumor growth in patients with ccRCC, which accounts for 80% of all kidney cancer types. A therapeutic vaccine is used after disease sets in, aiming to induce immunity to alter the course of disease. Each patient’s vaccine was created with information found by examining the DNA and RNA in the patient’s tumor, which identified mutations that were only found in the cancer. Currently approved immune therapies for kidney cancer aim to “release the brakes” on the immune system to allow it to attack cancer cells, but they do not tell the immune cells where to go. As a result, some patients do not benefit from current therapies, and others may experience side effects from an overactive immune system. As the article points out: it's still early. These results are promising, but trials with more patients will be needed to confirm the effectiveness and explore its full potential. Great write-ups here from STAT and Yale School of Medicine to go along with trial results published in Nature earlier this morning. All links in the comments below

New kidney MRI dye promises more accurate, personalized mapping. In a world first, University of Ottawa scientists have introduced a metal-free MRI dye capable of mapping kidney function with unprecedented accuracy. This technique will modernize urology, allow for more personalized care and — ultimately — improve patient outcomes. Canada. Published: July 13, 2023. Excerpt: One in 10 Canadians suffer from some form of kidney disease. Current clinical methods for diagnosis rely on entering demographic and blood-based measurements into an equation to obtain an average value of kidney function for each patient. This equation has a large error margin (around 20%) and doesn’t pinpoint which kidney is diseased or where the problem lies. “In speaking with radiologists and nephrologists, it became clear we needed to do better. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides excellent anatomical images but lacks suitable contrast agents for reporting kidney function,” says Adam J. Shuhendler, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Science. “Existing MRI dyes with heavy metal atoms can be toxic if kidney function is impaired. This study addresses this limitation by introducing a metal-free MRI dye that enables safe and effective mapping of kidney function, providing crucial information for personalized diagnosis and treatment planning.” The research team discovered a promising scaffold called #verdazyl, which served as the basis for the #metal-#free #MRI #dye. After optimizing its synthesis, the dye was injected into healthy mice and imaged using MRI. The results demonstrated the efficacy and safety of verdazyl dye, showing localization in the kidneys. Mouse models of kidney disease were subsequently used to validate the imaging-based method for mapping glomerular filtration rate (#GFR). The results were compared with histology and established methods for determining GFR in mice, further confirming the reliability of the MRI-based approach. #Note: “Unlike the current equation-based method and traditional gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents, the novel dye enabled precise characterization of kidney function, even when one kidney was dysfunctional,” says Shuhendler. “Remarkably, the study also revealed compensatory responses of healthy kidneys to their diseased counterparts.” Publication: Nature 05 July 2023 Direct mapping of kidney function by DCE-MRI urography using a tetrazinanone organic radical contrast agent. https://lnkd.in/euxf--cH https://lnkd.in/eabqAZ3H

Renasant Bio just dropped out of stealth with $54.5 million in seed funding, and if you're paying attention to the future of #kidneydisease treatment, this isn't just another biotech announcement, it's the start of a serious movement. You don't name a company Renasant Bio if you're just here to tweak existing treatments. No, this crew is coming straight for the root of #ADPKD, the most common inherited kidney disorder and a one-way ticket to end-stage #renalfailure for over 12 million people globally. While the industry has been patching symptoms, Renasant Bio is going molecular with it, engineering oral small molecules designed to correct and potentiate the faulty #proteins that actually cause the disease. Think #cysticfibrosis playbook, but written for the kidney. That's not evolution. That's a renaissance. This one started back in 2022 when 5AM Ventures tapped University of California, San Francisco professors Jeremy Reiter, M.D., Ph.D., and Markus Delling, Ph.D., to translate their ADPKD research into real-world #therapeutics. It took two and a half years in stealth, but now the company's stepping into the light with a syndicate that reads like a power table at The Grill, 5AM Ventures, Atlas Venture, OrbiMed, and Qiming Venture Partners USA. These aren't tourists. They back moonshots that pay off. At the helm is Emily Conley, Ph.D., a biotech heavyweight who scaled Federation Bio and helped build 23andMe from a 30-person outfit into a household name. Add in scientific leadership from Thomas (Gus) Gustafson, Ph.D., with 25 years of deep kidney R&D, and you've got a lineup that doesn't play small ball. The boardroom's got bite too, Natalie Holles as Chair, with Kevin Bitterman, Ph.D., Evan Caplan, MD, and Anna French, DPhil, guiding this next-gen machine. So why does this matter? Because the current gold standard, Tolvaptan, only slows the decline. Renasant wants to reverse the trajectory by targeting the #polycystin proteins (PC1 and PC2) across a mutation landscape so diverse, most treatments don't even try. Vertex is out there with VX-407, targeting about 10% of the ADPKD population. Renasant is coming for everyone else. They're not chasing the market, they're expanding it. With proprietary assays and a dual therapeutic strategy that folds proteins right and keeps them flowing, this team is setting the stage for a new era in kidney disease treatment. And with a market expected to grow past $2.5 billion by the early 2030s, this isn't just good science. It's smart business. #Startups #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #SeedRound #BioTech #BioTechnology #Science #Healthcare #HealthTech #DeepTech #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem If engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen.