Biotech firm aims to curb kidney damage

BOULDER – Bioscience firm Bolder BioTechnology Inc. has announced that preclinical research may lead to therapeutic approaches to prevent acute kidney injury during major surgeries.

The study, using Bolder BioTech’s interleukin-11 on mice, indicated that it may prevent kidney damage during many types of major surgeries.

The studies were performed in the laboratory of Dr. H. Thomas Lee, a professor and director of transplantation anesthesiology at Columbia University in New York.

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George “Joe” Cox, president of Bolder BioTech, said interleukin-11 is a multifunctional protein that is used clinically to treat low platelet counts in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

“Dr. Lee’s experiments show for the first time that IL-11 also can prevent kidney damage that results when blood flow to the kidneys is temporarily blocked and then restarted,” Cox said.

Restoring blood flow to oxygen-deprived kidney tissue initiates an inflammatory response that damages the healthy kidney and can lead to acute kidney injury and renal failure, a major clinical problem that is associated with a high incidence of permanent kidney damage and high mortality in certain patient populations, according to company press release.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health to Lee and to Bolder Biotechnology.