On August 3rd 2017, Vice-President Education Provost Wu Chuanyue, Professor Sun Ying and Co-director of the department of Biology Professor Xiao Guozhi published their last research entitled “Kindlin-2 Association with Rho GDP-Dissociation Inhibitor α Suppresses Rac1 Activation and Podocyte Injury” on the acclaimed international journal of nephrology “J Am Soc Nephrol”.
Kidney disease is an important public health problem that is threatening human health worldwide. With the development of China’s economy and the improvement of people’s living standard, the issue of chronic kidney disease is also increasing year by year. Unlike Europe and the United States, glomerular disease is the first cause of the end-stage renal disease in China. The number of patients on dialysis continues to grow at an annual rate of 5% to 8%, bringing financial pressure to the family and society. Therefore, it is of great significance to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease by researching for a future prevention.
Kindlin-2 is one of the most important adhesion proteins in recent years, but so far, little is known about its role towards renal diseases especially the podocyte injury. In this research, (Kindlin-2Neph2cKO) aka Kindlin-2 was firstly used on a mouse to elucidate the important role in the injury of the podocyte. From its progression and the addition of our professor Tian Ruijun from the Chemistry Department we were able to find new signaling pathways regulating RhoGDI alpha -Rac1 Kindlin-2 to establish it as a new target to hit the disease and to provide sufficient scientific evidence. The development of the project will greatly promote knowledge of nephrology which is an important field that goes towards finding a mechanism to improve our research level on the disease as well.
Alteration of podocyte behavior is critically involved in the development and progression of many forms of human glomerular diseases. The molecular mechanisms that control podocyte behavior, however, are not well understood. Here, we investigated the role of Kindlin-2, a component of cell-matrix adhesions, in podocyte behavior in vivo Ablation of Kindlin-2 in podocytes resulted in alteration of actin cytoskeletal organization, reduction of the levels of slit diaphragm proteins, effacement of podocyte foot processes, and ultimately massive proteinuria and death due to kidney failure. Through proteomic analyses and in vitro coimmunoprecipitation experiments, we identified Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor α (RhoGDIα) as a Kindlin-2-associated protein and provide evidence that it may serve as a useful target for therapeutic control of podocyte injury and associated glomerular diseases.
Ying and his fellow of postdoctoral Guo Chen are the first author of the article, Vice-president Education Wu Chuanyue, Sun Ying, and Professor Xiao Guozhi are the co authors. With the signature of SUSTech, this study was supported by The Ministry of Science and Technology, The National Science Fund Committee (NSFC) and supported by the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau Committee.
Translation and Layout by Semson J Nip
Article link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28775002
Reference Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28775002
