Chinese Herbs in Polycystic Kidney Disease

Using a compound from a centuries-old Chinese traditional medicine, Yale University researcher Dr. Craig Crews has been able to prevent the formation of kidney-destroying cysts in a mouse model of polycystic kidney disease.Researchers from Yale University and Columbia University recently published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggesting that triptolide, a component of a traditional Chinese medicine (Lei Gong Teng), may one day help treat patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD).
TWHF is indigenous to large regions in southern China and has been used for thousands of years in part because of its ability to suppress the immune system and inflammation.Triptolide is derived from a Chinese medicinal herb, named Lei Gong Teng, which has been used in traditional medicine to treat cancer, inflammation, and auto-immune diseases and, more recently, also has been tested in Phase I clinical trials as an anti-tumor agent.Extracts from TWHH are now being looked at for the treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.However, because TWHF is potentially very toxic, any medication derived from it would have to go through a rigorous testing process before being made available to patients.This study, with mice bred to have a disease like human polycystic kidney disease, used triptolide with a less toxic concentration than that used in cancer chemotherapy trials.

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is caused by a mutation in one of the two genes that cause kidney tubule cells to stop growing.As a result, they continue to grow and fill the kidney with non-functional and fluid-filled cysts.Using a mouse model for the most common form of PKD, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease or ADPKD, they showed that triptolide helped stop the growth of out-of-control kidney cells and decrease the formation of cysts.Encouraging results in a mouse model is a long way from being a commercially available drug.Although this is exciting research, it is very, very preliminary.
http://www.pkdclinic.org/chinese-herbs/