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Urinary renal epithelial cells can be used for NPHP1 phenotyping and a personalized therapeutic strategy
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DOI:10.1242/jcs.264141.png)
Abstract
En 中文
Nephronophthisis (NPHP) is a recessive tubulointerstitial nephropathy and a leading genetic cause of kidney failure in children and young adults. The most common genetic cause is a homozygous deletion of NPHP1, which encodes nephrocystin-1, a protein essential for primary cilium structure and cell junctions. Using personalized medicine and deep phenotyping, we investigated a family with three siblings carrying a homozygous NPHP1 deletion. We compared kidney biopsy tissue and human urine-derived renal epithelial cells (hURECs) from these individuals. Bulk RNA-seq on patient hURECs revealed altered expression in EGFR signalling, extracellular components and adherens junctions, which is consistent with the known roles for nephrocystin-1. Treatment with alprostadil, a proposed NPHP therapy, increased ciliation but worsened ciliary elongation. By contrast, the EGFR kinase inhibitor AG556 rescued of ciliary length and morphology. Transcriptional profiling post-treatment showed AG556 reversed the disease signature more effectively that alprostadil. These findings suggest that EGFR inhibition might offer a more promising therapeutic strategy for NPHP1-associated renal ciliopathy, warranting further testing in in vivo models before clinical application.
Keywords:
Kidney failure
Nephronophthisis
NPHP1
Whole gene deletion
Primary cilia
RNA-seq
Urine-derived renal epithelial cells
Extracellular matrix
Adherens junctions
Precision medicine
Journal
IF:
3.6
Papers:
1.1W
Citations:
3.7W

