New treatment for polycystic kidney disease

A new technique for treating polycystic kidney disease has been identified by researchers based at the UCL Institute of Child Health. Published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the treatment, which involves targeting tiny blood and lymphatic vessels inside the kidneys, is shown to improve renal function and slow progression of disease in mice. Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a genetic disorder where fluid filled cysts grow in kidneys and destroy normal renal tissue. It is the world's most common inherited kidney disease affecting between 1 in 400 and 1 in 1000 people worldwide - around 12.5 million individuals. A rarer form of the disease, which occurs in about one in every 20,000 live births in the UK, leads to a third of these babies dying before or just after birth. Treatment for the condition has traditionally targeted proteins which are thought to play a role in causing the condition and are located in hair-like structures and tissue that line the inside of cysts. These treatments can help alleviate some of the symptoms of PKD but they can't currently cure the condition.