New Drug Regimen Avoids Need for Dialysis

A pilot study has shown that an existing medication, aminophylline, can avoid the need for dialysis in more than 80% of adults with acute kidney failure. The drug has shown similar success when used for neonates with acute kidney failure in the intensive care unit (ICU).

The same treatment should also be useful for avoiding nonfunction of transplanted kidneys, administered immediately after placement into recipients, says GenoMed, Inc. (St. Louis, MO, USA). The company works to develop new treatments using existing drugs, whenever possible, and also seeks to identify disease-associated genes and pathways and to develop new drugs to block those pathways. The use of aminophylline to treat acute kidney failure had not been tried before and is based on the physiology of why the kidney shuts down in acute kidney failure.

"Despite the introduction of kidney dialysis within the past 50 years, acute kidney failure is still associated with a 50% mortality rate,” said Dr. David Moskowitz, chairman and chief medical officer of GenoMed. "This treatment should be especially useful in settings without ready access to kidney dialysis machines, such as in hospitals in developing countries and disaster sites such as earthquakes.”




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