News Briefs

MRI Provides Early Alert to PKD Progression

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests of the kidney can accurately track structural changes that might predict loss of kidney function earlier than standard blood and urine tests in people with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD), according to a National Institutes of Health-funded study.

The Consortium for Radiological Imaging Studies of Polycystic Kidney Disease, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, found that kidneys and small and large cysts grew continuously at steady rates rather than variable ones.

“Being able to predict how quickly a disease will progress—rather than waiting years for it to actually happen—should speed up trials of potential therapies,” according to lead study author Jared J. Grantham, M.D. The study’s findings were published in the May 18, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse has a fact sheet about PKD.

Study Challenges Thinking on Hormone-Receptor Bond Relationship

Findings from a new National Institutes of Health study challenge the widely held notion that the stronger the link between a hormone and receptor, the more effective its cellular signaling. Researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders have discovered that a looser connection between target receptors and chemical knockoffs resembling thyrotropin-releasing hormone produced more effective cellular signaling than a tight one. The findings, published in the May 12, 2006, issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could change the design of drug therapies for a number of health problems.

NIH Publication No. 07–5743
November 2006