Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is common complication for diabetics. However, they are not the only people who develop PKD. PKD affects one in 1,000 adults both diabetic and non-diabetics adults each year. The kidneys develop fluid filled cysts. “A normal kidney is the size of a fist. A polycystic kidney is the size of a football. Currently there is no cure for PKD and therapy options are limited. Organ transplantation is the most common treatment.”
Piogltiazone is a commonly used diabetes medication. The medication works by making the body more sensitive to its own insulin. However, in studying why this class of drugs causes fluid retention, Bonnie L. Blazer-Yost, Ph.D., professor of biology at the IUPUI School of Science and corresponding author of the new study, serendipitously found that it also inhibits a chloride channel.
"We thought that since this class of drugs inhibits the body's chloride channels, then it would be a good candidate to treat PKD, a disease in which excessive chloride and water are transported into the cysts of the kidneys and the liver causing them to expand," said Blazer-Yost, Ph.D.
Not only does Piogltiazone treat diabetes but in the near future, it could also help treat a condition that many diabetics are prone to because of their diabetes. As well as becoming one of the first medications available for people who suffer PKD.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/207606.php
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