When the kidney fails in what is called acute renal failure , the ability to remove these wastes is lost, which can lead to chronic disease or even death. Now, researchers at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital have patented a molecule that acts as a protector for the kidney against the toxicity of other drugs used to treat cancer or infections.
Researchers say that it is the first nephroprotective agent to be developed and will help prevent acute kidney failure in patients, which in more than 40% is caused by side effects .
Kidney failure
The new drug, called cilastatin, protects the kidney in more than 80% of cases against the toxicity of drugs widely used in the treatment of certain cancers, transplants or infections. According to Alberto Tejedor , director of the Physiopathology Laboratory of the Madrid hospital:
The drug is able to safely use other drugs for the kidney that, without cilastatin, would harm the kidney. This increases the safety of cancer treatment, drugs for transplant rejection can continue to be used, and new antibiotics can be used, the use of which was prohibitive due to the damage they caused to the kidney.