Can Nogo-B protect blood vessels in diabetic kidney disease?

Role of soluble Nogo-B in diabetic nephropathy: a protective role for the endothelium?

Professor Luigi Gnudi and his team at King’s College London are studying a protein called Nogo-B to find out if it could protect blood vessels during diabetic kidney disease. In diabetes, small blood vessels in the kidney become damaged, causing diabetic kidney disease. Endothelial cells lining the blood vessels become faulty, which leads to leaking of protein into the urine, one of the earliest features of diabetic kidney disease. Professor Gnudi has discovered that there are lower amounts of Nogo-B in the kidney during the early stages of diabetic kidney disease. He has found that increasing the amount of Nogo-B circulating in the blood improves the leakiness of kidney blood vessels. In this project, he will find out if genetically boosting Nogo-B, in a mouse model of diabetes, protects the kidney’s blood vessels from damage. He will also find out how Nogo-B functions inside cells to protect them from damage. By working out whether Nogo-B can protect blood vessels this research could reveal a new way to treat diabetic kidney disease and other blood vessel diseases.