Kidney research, 2026-09-08
Two large record studies looked at common kidney drugs, but neither settles anything yet
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Both studies looked back at old records instead of assigning treatment at random, so they can show a link but cannot show that one drug combination caused the difference.
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A lab study found a natural peptide shielded kidney cells from low-oxygen damage of the kind sleep apnea causes, which is early work in cells and not yet tested in people.
Today's batch was about drug combinations for kidney disease that comes from type 2 diabetes. Both studies earned a C grade because they reviewed past medical records rather than running a trial, which limits what they can tell us. Questions like these are worth raising with your kidney doctor, since your own history matters more than an average across a database. The rest of the sweep was mind-body and general medical work with no kidney connection.
Effectiveness and Safety of Nefecon in Primary IgA Nephropathy Across Different Baseline Proteinuria Levels: A Real-World Study.
Nefecon is a targeted form of the steroid budesonide, designed to act in the gut where the harmful antibodies in IgA nephropathy are made. In this real-world study, 28 patients...
Eplerenone vs. spironolactone in heart failure: a propensity score-matched analysis of 77 904 patients from a global federated network.
Two closely related heart failure drugs, eplerenone and spironolactone, were compared in 77,904 people using health records from a global database. The study tracked deaths,...
Association Between Biomarkers and Kidney Function Decline in Pulmonary Hypertension
This is a study that is starting, so there are no results yet. It will check whether certain markers in urine and blood can predict how fast kidney filtering rate falls, known as...
Efficacy and Safety of Baxdrostat in Hypertension: A GRADE-Assessed Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Baxdrostat is a new blood pressure pill. It blocks aldosterone, a hormone that raises blood pressure and strains the kidneys. This review pooled randomized trials of the drug and...
Early renal perfusion phenotypes and renal recovery in critically ill patients with or at risk for acute kidney injury: a prospective multicenter cohort study
This study followed critically ill patients in several hospitals and measured blood flow through the kidneys early in their stay. It sorted patients into blood flow patterns and...
Targeting MicroRNA-21 in Chronic Kidney Disease: Lessons from the Lademirsen Story
A look back at lademirsen, a drug built to block a molecule called microRNA-21 that drives kidney scarring. Its trial did not pan out, and the authors walk through what went wrong...
Preserved Benefit, Shifting Endpoint: A Systematic Review of SGLT2i in CKD After 65
A team has registered its plan to pool together past studies of SGLT2 inhibitors in people over 65 with kidney disease. These are diabetes drugs that also slow kidney decline, and...
What are effective treatments for CKD stage 3a patients without diabetes and without hypertension?
A document asking which treatments help people with early stage 3a kidney disease who have neither diabetes nor high blood pressure. It was posted to an open file archive, not...
Complement Factor H Regulates a Complement-Extracellular Vesicle-Macrophage Axis in Immune Mediated Kidney Injury
Laboratory work on how a blood protein called complement factor H controls immune damage in the kidney. It traces a chain from that protein to tiny cell packages called...
Intrarenal Resistive Index and Serum Creatinine in Decompensated Chronic Liver Disease: Implications for Early Prediction of Hepatorenal Syndrome
Doctors used ultrasound to measure how hard blood pushes through the kidneys, alongside creatinine, a waste product in the blood that rises when kidneys slow down, in people with...
Association between fibroblast growth factor 23 and coronary artery calcification in patients with chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis
Researchers pooled many earlier studies of FGF23, a hormone that climbs when failing kidneys cannot clear phosphate, and calcium buildup in the heart arteries of people with kidney...
Mycophenolate mofetil versus tacrolimus for maintenance of remission in children with frequently relapsing and steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome: a pilot randomized controlled trial
This was a small pilot randomized trial in children with nephrotic syndrome, a condition where the kidneys leak large amounts of protein into the urine and it keeps relapsing. It...
Catheter-Based Renal Denervation in Uncontrolled and Resistant Hypertension: Evidence, Guidelines, Special Populations and Clinical Implementation
This is a review of renal denervation, a procedure that threads a catheter into the arteries feeding the kidneys and quiets the nerves there to lower blood pressure. It summarizes...
Global transitions of concomitant patterns and risk factors of cardio-renal-metabolic conditions among the elderly.
Researchers tracked how often heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease occur together in adults aged 55 and older, across 204 countries from 1990 to 2021....
The Role of Uremic Toxins in Comorbidities of Chronic Kidney Disease
This is a review of uremic toxins, the waste products that build up in the blood when kidneys cannot clear them properly. It gathers what is known about how those toxins contribute...
Bruceine A attenuates renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis by inhibiting the Wnt7a/PI3K/AKT pathway
Bruceine A is a compound from a plant used in traditional medicine. In this lab study it reduced scarring in kidney tissue, the process that slowly hardens the kidney and cuts its...
Serum phoenixin-14 levels in chronic kidney disease and hemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional study
Phoenixin-14 is a small body-made signalling molecule tied to appetite and metabolism. Researchers measured its blood level once in people with kidney disease and people on...
Estandarización de la amplificación de una región codificante de APOL1 mediante RT-PCR en líneas celulares humanas.
APOL1 is a gene whose risky versions raise the chance of kidney disease, mostly in people of West African ancestry. This work sets up a reliable lab method to copy and read part of...
Circadian reprogramming of inflammation and metabolism in chronic kidney disease
This review looks at the body clock, the roughly 24 hour rhythm that sets when cells burn fuel and when inflammation rises and falls, and how that rhythm goes wrong in kidney...
Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) responds to the retraction of the ADVOCATE trial of avacopan for the treatment of ANCA-associated vasculitis
KDIGO, the group that writes global kidney treatment guidelines, has responded to the retraction of the ADVOCATE trial. That trial was the main basis for approving avacopan, a pill...
Pharmacokinetics of novel drugs for the treatment of Diabetic nephropathy.
This review covers how the body handles newer drugs for diabetic kidney disease: how much drug gets into the blood, how long it stays, and when the dose needs changing. Damaged...
Finerenone in Asian patients with diabetic kidney disease: evaluating the evidence for "better efficacy".
This article asks whether finerenone works better in Asian patients with diabetic kidney disease than in other groups. Finerenone is an approved pill that blocks a hormone signal...
Red blood cell distribution width is an indicator of physiological dysregulation and reveals the relationship between biomarkers and health status in hemodialysis patients
Researchers looked at 1,216 people on long-term dialysis over 9 years, using 143,475 blood samples. They found that red blood cell distribution width, a routine measure of how much...
Ultrasound-guided kidney biopsy: a review of what operators need to know.
This is a practical guide for doctors who take kidney biopsies, where a needle removes a tiny piece of kidney for testing, guided by ultrasound. It covers who should and should not...
Tertiary Lymphoid Structures in Lupus Nephritis Are Associated With Aging and Chronic Kidney Injury.
Researchers found organized clumps of immune cells, called tertiary lymphoid structures, inside kidney tissue from people with lupus nephritis, the kidney damage caused by lupus....
Implementing a Protocol for Incremental Hemodialysis in Incident Patients With Kidney Failure: A Quality Improvement Initiative.
One hospital tried starting new dialysis patients on two sessions a week instead of the usual three, matched to how much work their own kidneys still do. The goal was to start 75...
Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, severe sepsis, and infection-related outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes.
SGLT2 inhibitors are a common drug class that protects the kidneys and heart in people with diabetes. This study asked a different question: do they raise or lower the risk of...
Finerenone-Based Dual Versus Triple Therapy with SGLT2 Inhibitors and GLP-1 Receptor Agonists in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Associated Chronic Kidney Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Doctors reviewed the records of adults whose kidney disease came from type 2 diabetes to compare two drug combinations. One group took finerenone plus an SGLT2 inhibitor, and the...
Intermedin mitigates chronic intermittent hypoxia-induced metabolic reprogramming in tubular epithelial cells and attenuates consequent kidney fibrosis through an AMPK-dependent suppression of HIF-1α.
Sleep apnea makes oxygen levels drop over and over during the night, and that repeated stress can scar the kidneys. In this lab work, a natural body peptide called intermedin...
Accelerated Age-related Cognitive Decline: Impact of Exercise on Executive Function and Neuroplasticity
This is a study that is starting, so there are no results yet. It will test whether 6 months of walking at home improves memory in older adults who have chronic kidney disease...
Evaluate the Impact of Targeted Physical Activity on Clinically Debilitated Dialysis Patients.
This is a study that is starting, so there are no results yet. It will look at what a specific exercise training program, called the GH Method, does for dialysis patients who have...
Nigella sativa extract modulates Nrf2-related and renal transporter expression in a rat model of cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury
Rats were given a chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, that damages kidneys, then treated with black seed extract (Nigella sativa). The extract shifted the activity of genes that control...
Gut microbial phenol impairs energy metabolism and promotes sarcopenic obesity-like phenotypes in mice
Gut bacteria produce a waste chemical called phenol, which builds up in people whose kidneys are not clearing waste well. In mice, that chemical disrupted how the body burns energy...
Analysis of gut microbiota and fecal/plasma short-chain fatty acids in non-dialysis renal anemia patients: associations with clinical parameters
Researchers compared the gut bacteria of people with kidney disease and low red blood cell counts, called renal anemia, against their blood test results. They also measured...
Ten tips for the first hemodialysis sessions.
Kidney doctors wrote ten pieces of practical advice for the first weeks of hemodialysis. They cover consenting to dialysis, checking whether a transplant is possible, and reviewing...
Sex- and age-specific associations between body composition markers and estimated glomerular filtration rate-results of a population-based study.
Researchers measured body size and body fat in 4,211 adults from a general population study, then compared those measures with kidney filtering rate (eGFR). Body build tracked with...
Development and multi-cohort validation of a sarcopenia-inflammation index for predicting all-cause mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Researchers built a single score that combines muscle loss with long-running body inflammation, two problems that often travel together in kidney disease. They tested it first in...
Association between remnant cholesterol inflammation index and handgrip strength in maintenance hemodialysis patients.
In 117 people on regular dialysis at one center, doctors measured hand grip strength and a score that mixes leftover blood fat with an inflammation marker. People with a higher...
Childhood Obesity, Kidneys, and Healthy Eating with Dr. Rosa-Sanchez
A children's kidney doctor discusses weight in childhood and what it means for the kidneys, with a focus on Hispanic and Latino families. Her point is that families can eat in a...
Effects of a Life Hope Program on Self-Care Ability and Hope Levels in Hemodialysis Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
A randomized trial gave 120 people on dialysis either usual nursing care or usual care plus a 3-month program aimed at building hope and self-care skills. Sixty people were in each...
Self-Management of Chronic Illness in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis: The Role of Individual Factors and Adaptation to Illness
This study of people on hemodialysis looked at what makes some patients better at managing their own illness, things like taking medicines, watching fluids and keeping...
Music medicine for diabetes, hypertension, and perceived stress: An open labelled randomized control trial in Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, 349 adults with type 2 diabetes were randomly split into two groups: 172 got music chosen for them on top of usual care, and 177 got usual care alone. The study...
Cellular modifiers of TDP-43 phase transition and cytoplasmic aggregation.
This study is about TDP-43, a protein that clumps together in nerve cells in diseases like ALS and some forms of dementia. It has no connection to kidney disease, kidney function,...
Kidney-on-Chip and Organoid Models: Harnessing Mechanical Forces for Translational Kidney Biology.
This is a review of lab-grown kidney models: tiny kidney tissues called organoids, and chips that mimic the physical push and pull of fluid inside a real kidney. New United States...
Macrophage heterogeneity in organ fibrosis in the era of single-cell omics.
This is a review article about macrophages, a type of immune cell, and their role in organ scarring, which is called fibrosis. Scarring is the final common path that destroys...
Magnetically actuated microrobots in urolithiasis: emerging frontiers in kidney stone diagnosis and management
A review of tiny magnet-steered robots being designed to find and clear kidney stones. The hope is that doctors could guide these devices through the urinary tract instead of using...
Urine-Derived Cells in Kidney Transplantation: Linking Cellular Phenotypes, Secretome Signatures and Multi-Omic Technologies
This is a review article about cells collected from urine, which can be grown in the lab and studied. Researchers hope these cells can show how a transplanted kidney is doing...
KPIs-RSFNet: a deep learning-based method for glomerulus segmentation
This paper describes a computer program that automatically outlines glomeruli, the tiny filters inside the kidney, in slides of kidney tissue. It is a tool for pathologists and...
Immunomodulation by MSCs in Kidney Diseases: Molecular Mechanisms
This is a review of how mesenchymal stem cells, a repair cell type taken from bone marrow or fat, calm the immune system in kidney disease. It pulls together the molecular steps...
Kidney transplant program at the Chelyabinsk Regional Clinical Hospital
One hospital in Chelyabinsk, Russia, describes its kidney transplant program and the work it has done. This is a single center's own account of its experience, with no comparison...
Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) in an Anuric Patient With a WT1 Mutation and Chronic Renal Graft Failure: A Case Report.
This is a report on one patient who had both kidneys removed, made no urine at all, and had a failed transplanted kidney. The person developed PRES, a reversible brain swelling...
Fracture incidence and mortality in kidney transplant recipients compared with waitlisted dialysis patients: A single-center retrospective analysis.
This study compared broken bones in 504 people who received a kidney transplant with 423 people on dialysis who were waiting for one, all at a single hospital. It also asked...
Pediatric kidney transplant disparities.
Researchers searched a large national record of 2022 hospital stays for children with kidney failure. They wanted to measure how much less often minority children get a transplant,...
Racial and Ethnic Variations in Reductions in Etelcalcetide Use After Withdrawal of the Transitional Drug Add-on Payment Adjustment
Etelcalcetide is an IV drug given during dialysis to calm an overactive parathyroid gland, a common problem that weakens bones in kidney failure. From 2018 to 2020 Medicare paid...
A Communication-Priming Intervention to Improve Shared Decision-Making Between Older Adults With Advanced CKD and Clinicians
This is a study that is starting, so there are no results yet. It tests a short tip sheet, called CKD Jumpstart Tips, that prepares older adults with advanced kidney disease for...
Underdocumentation of laboratory-defined acute kidney injury in internal medicine wards: a retrospective cohort study
Doctors looked back at hospital records on general medical wards and compared blood test results against what was written in the chart. Many cases of sudden kidney injury showed up...
Assessment of the Lived Experience of Patients on Haemodialysis in Selected Hospitals in South Western Nigeria
Researchers interviewed and surveyed people getting dialysis at several hospitals in southwestern Nigeria about what daily life on treatment is like. It describes their experience:...
Chronic kidney disease and renal replacement therapy in the Russian Federation: 2025 annual report. Annual monitoring by the Center for the Advancement of Nephrology Care, Shumakov National Medical Research Center of Transplantology and Artificial Organs
This is Russia's yearly national count of people living with kidney failure and the treatment they get: dialysis and transplants. It tracks how many people are on each treatment...
Histopathology findings in kidney biopsies at a tertiary hospital in Nairobi, Kenya
Doctors at a large hospital in Nairobi, Kenya reviewed what they found under the microscope in kidney biopsies, the small tissue samples taken to diagnose kidney disease. The point...