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Dominant narratives that describe the power of individual-level resilience underplay the long-lasting consequences of structural violence and perpetuate harms to historically marginalized patients and communities. It is time to update our approaches and narratives by addressing the root causes of inequities through redress and collective resistance to create the equitable conditions needed for communities to thrive.
Decades of research have revealed that nephron number is a crucial determinant of kidney health. However, a lack of appropriate tools has limited these studies to ex vivo analyses. For the first time, techniques are emerging that might enable the use of functional nephron number as a biomarker in living humans.
Although direct kidney infection by SARS-CoV-2 remains controversial, a study based largely on autopsies shows increased tubulointerstitial fibrosis in patients with COVID-19 and suggests direct kidney infection. Moreover, in human kidney organoids, SARS-CoV-2 infection upregulates several pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory pathways.
This Review summarizes the state of the art of acute kidney injury model development, focusing on the translatability of discoveries using human kidney organoid, zebrafish, rodent and large animal models. The authors recommend a multidisciplinary approach to optimize the development of effective therapies for acute kidney injury.
Clinical trials have demonstrated sodium–glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors to be safe and effective drugs that improve kidney outcomes in patients with and without diabetes. SGLT2 inhibitors also improve heart failure outcomes for patients with preserved or reduced ejection fraction. This Review summarizes findings from clinical trials of SGLT2 inhibitors, focusing on the effects of these agents in patients with chronic kidney disease and heart failure, and describes how potential mechanisms of action may translate into clinical benefit.
This Review summarizes current understanding of the role of APOL1 variants in kidney disease. The authors discuss the genetics, protein structure and biological functions of APOL1 variants and provide an overview of promising therapeutic strategies.
Here, the authors discuss the effects of salt intake on health outcomes, the factors that determine individual susceptibility to dietary salt and approaches to reducing salt intake and improving health at the population and individual levels.
