Can sugar patterns help to predict kidney disease?
Dr Andrew Chetwynd from the University of Liverpool has been awarded a Kidney Research UK senior fellowship award of £303,000 to investigate whether the patterns of sugars on immune proteins can predict kidney damage.
The problem with changes to the IgA protein
IgA-mediated glomerulonephritis (IgA-GN) is a condition where changes to IgA, an immune protein, can cause damage in the kidney filters and lead to kidney disease.
Sometimes the damage is so bad that either dialysis or transplant is needed. If we can understand more about what is causing IgA-GN, we may be able to develop better ways to diagnose and treat it.
The solution to look at sugar patterns
When someone has kidney disease, the patterns of sugars on proteins can change and these changes can alter the shape and job of the protein, which can affect kidney health.
Andrew will analyse how these changes in sugar patterns might contribute to IgA-GN, and whether they might be able to explain why kidney disease can affect adults and children differently. He will also study how the sugar patterns change over time to find potential markers that show how the disease might progress or get better.
Andrew will develop methods to pick up changes in these sugar patterns using devices that can be used at home and posted to the lab, making it easier for more people to participate.
What this might mean for patients
The goal of this research is to be able to predict who will develop kidney damage so that steps can be taken to prevent it. In the process, this work may also uncover possible new targets to treat kidney disease.
“The support from Kidney Research UK for this fellowship is an incredible step in my career and enables my continued development as a scientist. This work will help understand the mechanisms behind IgA-mediated glomerulonephritis and potentially help find biomarkers to allow greater predictive power for those who will develop kidney disease or as targets for treatment.” Dr Andrew Chetwynd
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