The Grand Opening Of ASN Kidney Week 2022, The Revolution in Nephrology Begins Immediately

On November 3, 2022, the 2022 Kidney Week (Kidney Week) organized by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) officially opened. Professor Susan E. Quaggin, Chairman of ASN, gave a wonderful speech at the opening ceremony. She pointed out that compared with before 2015, the progress in the management of kidney disease has been advancing by leaps and bounds, giving people reason to believe that nephrology is about to face a "revolution"! To adapt to this "revolution", as early as 2019, ASN changed its vision and is willing to work with colleagues from all over the world to build a world without kidney disease.

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Advances in the management of kidney disease by leaps and bounds

Unfortunately, before 2015, there were no new drugs in nephrology available to reduce the risk of disease progression or death in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), except for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor antagonists. Since 2015, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT-2i), non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) The continuous emergence of new therapeutic drugs such as CKD has broken this deadlock, changed the management status of CKD patients, and improved the adverse outcomes of CKD patients. For example, the CREDENCE study of canagliflozin found that, with renal failure (estimated glomerular filtration rate <10ml/min/1.73㎡) as the endpoint, then, compared with the placebo group, canagliflozin will delay the renal disease in patients The progress is about 15.1 years.

At present, the field of CKD has also maintained rapid development. In 2022 alone, 9 drugs/devices/apps have passed the review of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have been approved for the treatment of patients with kidney disease. These drugs/devices/apps are mainly used to evaluate the VIDAS Nephrocheck system for patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) within 12 hours, the "orphan drug" for hepatorenal syndrome - terlipressin, and home renal function AI testing System Minuteful Kidney app.

It is worth mentioning that this app can turn the mobile phone camera into a medical device. At home, patients can insert the test strips that come with the app into their urine, and take photos of the urine test strips with their mobile phones. The app can obtain clinical-grade proteinuria test results by analyzing the photos of the test strips. The study found that the app increased patient compliance while providing convenient and quick screening for CKD patients. What is even more remarkable is that this year, 8 other drugs/devices/apps have been recognized by the FDA as a breakthrough therapy, priority review, or other accelerated channels.

In this conference, in addition to the above-mentioned new methods of kidney disease management, participating experts and scholars also discussed the frontier progress of other kidney diseases. For example, xenotransplantation, a technology that originally appeared only in science fiction, has gradually come into reality. In 2021, the US team implanted a pig kidney into the human body for the first time, with normal kidney function and no rejection. In 2023, the team will conduct clinical trials. At this conference, the team will also share the details of this breakthrough with the latest data and clinical insights.

In recent years, genetic testing and treatment related to nephrology are also booming. In October 2021, Nature Genetics released a blockbuster study. The study found that the lack of PKD1 can lead to polycystic kidney disease. If the PKD1 gene is inserted into PKD1-deficient mice, the polycystic kidneys of the mice will gradually shrink, the size of the mice will approach normal kidneys, and the kidney function will also recover. This means that the PKD1 gene and its transcripts may provide a new direction for the treatment of polycystic kidney disease.

Professor Quaggin said excitedly: "Seeing these new developments, I firmly believe that this is the moment for nephrologists, and our revolution has arrived!"

Goals for the future

The vision of ASN is to build a world without kidney disease (A world without kidney disease). To achieve this grand vision, ASN proposes 3 key goals.

①Strengthen screening to identify patients with kidney disease. Current data shows that there are 37 million kidney disease patients in the United States who do not know they have the disease and a total of 850 million people in other countries do not know that they have kidney disease. Therefore, ASN expects colleagues around the world to strengthen kidney disease screening for the general population, early detection, early intervention, and early treatment, and improve the final prognosis of patients.

② fair. Fairness should be exercised in screening, diagnosis, intervention, and treatment. When doctors provide medical services and advice, they should not be affected by factors such as the patient's age, gender, and place of origin. This will help the public and patients to the greatest extent and is conducive to the prevention and treatment of kidney diseases.

③Strengthen social attention and increase funding for nephrology research. According to an analysis, cancer-related research funds are apportioned to $960 per cancer patient, and $560 per Alzheimer's patient, but only $18 per kidney disease patient. Professor Quaggin believes that increasing research funding will greatly promote the progress of nephrology and help improve the final prognosis of patients with kidney disease.

Yimaidong will continue to pay attention to and report on this ASN Kidney Week 2022 conference, to report the progress in the frontier field of kidney disease in time for everyone, and to share this academic event. The Yimaitong Kidney channel hopes to build a world with everyone, "I hope that people in the world are free from disease, so why not put medicine on the shelves to make dust".

for more information: Ali.ma@wecistanche.com