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New medicine lowers salt intake
A significant majority of people consume too much sodium from their food, contributing to an overall increase in cardiovascular disease and poor kidney function. But soon, a new drug may be able to solve this growing problem – by lowering an individual’s salt absorption without affecting his or her diet.
The medication could potentially help the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension, but who have a hard time adhering to a low-sodium diet.
Developed by researchers at drug manufacturer Ardelyx, the drug, tenapanor, works by blocking a membrane transporter called NH3, which is responsible for most of the reuptake of sodium in the body. By inhibiting this protein, the majority of sodium is prevented from seeping into the bloodstream and instead remains in the gut.
“It’s a small molecule that’s been designed to remain within the gut, acting on this transporter that is expressed in the mucosa in the GI (gastrointestinal) tract,” lead researcher Dominique Charmot, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Ardelyx, told FoxNews.com. “ So that increases sodium in the stool and avoids building up too much sodium in the body.”
To test the effectiveness of tenapanor, Charmot and lead study author Andrew Spencer, senior director for research and development at Ardelyx, administered the drug to rats that had fractions of their kidneys removed, in order to emulate patients with CKD. They also continued feeding the rats a high-sodium diet to see how it interfered with the drug’s success.
“What we’ve shown in this rat model is it protects against hypertension and hypertrophy (an increase in volume) of the heart; and it protects against further damage of the kidney,” Charmot said.
Additionally, tenapanor was given to patients with CKD in a phase 1 proof of concept study. After taking the medication, patients showed an increase of sodium in their stools and no presence of the drug was detected in their bloodstreams.
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