A research project by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), National Applied Research Laboratories and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) might provide a critical first step to cures for polycystic kidney disease or similar conditions, researchers said.
The team said that the overexpression of exogenous neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a biomarker for acute and chronic renal injuries, had the potential to help reduce cystic progression and prolong the lifespan of people with such diseases.
NGAL is considered one of the most promising novel biomarkers to help doctors detect acute kidney injuries and chronic kidney diseases early enough to offer preventive measures, they said.
The team said that tests on mice showed that animals with kidney conditions that had an overexpression of exogenous kidney-specific NGAL also had reduced cystic progression and prolonged lifespans compared with mice with endogenous NGAL or NGAL deficiencies.
The biomarker is also associated with reductions in interstitial fibrosis and proliferation, and augmented apoptosis, the team said.
The project has been going for more than 13 years, NTNU said, adding that the team is filing for a multinational patent for its discoveries and is looking to begin clinical trials soon.
The results have also been reported by Kidney International, the official journal of the International Society of Nephrology.
NTNU said that autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is the most common inherited kidney disorder, affecting an estimated 12.5 million people globally, and that the condition does not have any effective treatment.
According to National Health Insurance Administration statistics, people with the condition comprised roughly 5 to 10 percent of all patients on dialysis, costing the nation roughly NT$3.4 billion (US$107 million) per year.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching