The nutritional supplement α-lipoic acid could be a potential therapy for the prevention of cystine urolithiasis say researchers. Cystinuria is characterized by recurrent stone formation as a result of defective urinary cystine reabsorption and the effectiveness of current therapies for stone prevention is limited. Now, Zee et al. report that α-lipoic acid strongly suppressed stone growth in a mouse model of cystinuria. They found that this treatment — which is widely available and has few adverse effects — increased the solubility of cystine in the urine of these mice compared with untreated controls.
References
Zee, T. et al. α-Lipoic acid prevents cystine urolithiasis in a mouse model of cystinuria. Nat. Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.4280 (2017)
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Carney, E. A novel approach to stone prevention in cystinuria. Nat Rev Nephrol 13, 194 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2017.26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2017.26