{"id":274571,"date":"2025-10-03T12:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274571\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:47:12","slug":"kidney-organoids-show-apol1-genes-role-in-chronic-kidney-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274571\/","title":{"rendered":"Kidney organoids show APOL1 gene\u2019s role in chronic kidney disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects more than 700 million people worldwide and is influenced by genetic, environmental and medical factors. A key genetic contributor is the APOL1 gene, which carries two risk variants most prevalent in people of West African descent. These variants increase susceptibility to a form of kidney disease known as APOL1-mediated kidney disease (AMKD), yet the mechanisms behind it have remained largely unclear \u2013 with limited effective treatments.<\/p>\n

To better understand AMKD, researchers at the University of Leiden<\/a>, led by Siebe Spijker, developed a new approach using human stem cells. The team generated stem cells from skin biopsies of patients with AMKD and then turned them into kidney organoids.<\/a><\/p>\n

In some organoids, the APOL1 mutations were corrected using genetic engineering techniques, allowing researchers to directly compare healthy and mutant cells under laboratory conditions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Immunofluorescence staining of kidney organoid, podocytes in red, APOL1 in green. Credit: Image provided by Heein Song<\/p>\n

The study found that APOL1 mutations negatively affect the function of mitochondria \u2013the cell\u2019s energy-producing organelles \u2013 within the kidney. Podocytes, specialised cells critical to the kidney\u2019s filtering ability, were particularly impacted \u2013 as they naturally produce the most APOL1 protein.<\/p>\n

These mitochondrial defects became especially pronounced when cells were exposed to inflammatory proteins, suggesting a link between bodily inflammation \u2013 caused by viral infections or autoimmune conditions \u2013 and the onset of AMKD in susceptible patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe anticipate that this human kidney organoid model will advance our understanding of AMKD and accelerate drug discovery, particularly given that APOL1 is not endogenously expressed in rodents,\u201d said Spijker.<\/p>\n

The research provides a clearer picture of how mutant APOL1 disrupts kidney function and offers a potential pathway for developing targeted treatments for patients suffering from AMKD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects more than 700 million people worldwide and is influenced by genetic, environmental and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":274572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-274571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115310313131224535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}