CRISP Study Could Lead to New PKD Therapies

Scientists have long known that patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) begin to develop cysts on their kidneys in childhood. Those cysts grow larger in adults. What scientists didn’t know was how fast this growth occurred and whether it was a continuous process or something that stops and starts.

New research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, examined the progression of PKD with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI.) The CRISP study (as it's known by the PKD community) finds that the kidneys do enlarge continuously due to the cyst growth. The research concluded that patients with the largest cyst volumes were also the first to experience kidney failure.

Treatment of PKD with “designer” drugs has been hampered, because there was no way to monitor how fast the disease was progressing and whether medications were working before the kidneys suffered irreversible damage. This study could help fast track new therapies for PKD.

The PKD Foundation helped secure funding for the study. Dr. Jared Grantham, co-founder of the PKD Foundation, is lead author of the article, published May 18 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Learn More

To download the full article, click here (PDF).

To download an accompanying editorial, written by Dr. Ronald Perrone, Chair of the PKD Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee and a member of the Board of Trustees, click here (PDF).

To read an article in the Lawrence Journal-World about Dr. Grantham and the study, click here.

For more information on PKD clinical trials, click here.