Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is characterized by an abrupt loss of kidney function—this common medical complication affects 4,000,000 and kills 300,000 people every year in the US alone. AKI affects one in five hospitalized adults and one in three hospitalized children, and is associated with annual healthcare costs in the USA exceeding $10B.
Dr. Sylvie Breton and her team at MGH/Harvard Medical School discovered that a molecule known as UDP-glucose (UDP-G), when present in elevated amounts in the urine, predicts the onset of AKI prior to initiation of inflammation-induced kidney injury. The Breton lab has also described how UDP-G induces renal inflammation that causes kidney injury, and how to block UDP-G activity with small-molecule receptor antagonists.
Based on these discoveries, Kantum Bio is uniquely positioned to develop a novel specific AKI therapeutic to reduce its incidence, severity and sequelae. In parallel, Kantum will develop a test to enable doctors to diagnose AKI before it develops. The combination of early diagnosis and specific therapy will reduce or prevent AKI incidence and progression, thereby saving hundreds of thousands of lives.