The Eventual PKD Cure

What it is:

PKD stands for Polycystic Kidney Disease, it is a condition which effects around 12.5 million people worldwide. PKD is among the commonest life-threatening genetic diseases on the world. Somebody that has PKD will spread kidney cysts gradually throughout their existence, affected organs can, after 40-50 years, reach the size of footballs. It goes without saying they can become a source of grave ache and, ultimately, affected kidneys will surrender to renal disappointment, no matter what. Ultimately, a kidney transplant may be the only way to save the patient.

For a few years, sufferers of PKD went undiagnosed and so the condition claimed a great the number of lives without ever being appropriately discovered. Now, however, it is an worldwide known illness and sufferers are carefully monitored from an young age.

In November of ’12, doctors at the KU kidney institute in Kansas, USA, developed a drug called tolvaptan. The drug was discovered to slow the expansion of cysts as well as easing the damaged kidney function, this was a much-needed step by the right direction, however it isn’t a treatment.

This year, things have been looking up even more. Scientists performing at Massachusetts For the General Hospital were actually able to grow a viable rat kidney and transplant it into a living animal. Furthermore to that, Dr. Xiaogang Li of the KU Kidney institute lately found that vitamin B3 can slow the growth of cysts; in fact, his team was able to entirely restore kidney use in test mice with PKD. Now that’s advancement.

Why we would like it:

Because 12.5 million citizens around the world are suffering with a hereditary, life threatening ailment, also, babies with PKD are being born each day. A cure is required and it is wanted now.

When can we expect it?

A bona-fide cure may yet be decades away, but if regular vitamin shots should be considered to regulate the condition itself, allowing patients to survive longer, healthier lives, then I’d say that we were absolutely on the right track.

Drugs that control the illness might be available soon, however. Large-scale Human being trials have confirmed that vitamin B3 is safe for widespread use. This means that it must be available to patients all over the world comparatively soon.

Doctors eventually hope to be able to treat PKD in the womb, stopping the disease before it starts. That would, successfully, represent a cure. Such expertise is likely 10 years (or more) away, but we’re getting there.

Cool Factor: 5/5

Remember that scene in ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’ where the crew of that Enterprise fly back in time to that mid 1980’s and Doc McCoy encounters an elderly Woman who needs kidney dialysis. Exploding in skepticism, the great doctor cries “what is this, the dark ages!?” before giving the Lady a tablet that rapidly grows her a new kidney, much to her delight. That’s where we could be within a couple of decades – ‘Star Trek’ tech. What could be cooler than that?

Joining the NHS organ donor list is a way you may help this situation, today. 

The Eventual PKD Cure