PKD-STOP From starfish oocytes to candidate drug for treating polycystic kidney disease

The renal disease, PKD, affects more than 800 000 people in Europe. Its principal characteristic is the development of cysts due to mutations in the PKD1 or PKD2 genes.

PKD-STOP is aimed at developing a candidate drug – a marine-sourced (starfish) kinase inhibitor – to fight polycystic kidney disease, the most common genetic disease in humans.

Treatments for PKD are currently very limited. Several molecules are in the process of preclinical or clinical development, but only one product exists on today’s market and its effectiveness is limited.

In the absence of an effective drug-based treatment for PKD, the project will provide an understanding of how the primary cilia at the source of the disease malfunction, develop a molecular biomarker to monitor the disease’s development and evolution and optimise the beneficial effects of the candidate drug.

Three types of products will be developed during the PKD-STOP project: animal models, biomarkers for the evolution of the pathology and a candidate drug and its administration protocol.

The PKD-STOP project is also recognised by the Atlanpole Biothérapies cluster.