Grant: Project Grant

Diabetes happens when the sugar levels in your blood are too high. When they sugar levels in your blood are too high for too long this can cause long-term health problems like kidney disease. In fact, diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure in Canada. The good news is that over recent years several new treatments have become available that reduce the risk of kidney failure in diabetes. These treatments aren't perfect though and the risk of kidney failure is still significant for people living with diabetes. In this project, we will look at a new treatment opportunity for kidney disease in diabetes. This treatment opportunity involves stopping a biological process called inflammation. The word 'inflammation' describes the body's immune defence system. When the body is fighting an infection, inflammation is usually a good thing because it helps the body fight the infection. Sometimes though inflammation can occur when there is no infection, like in diabetic kidney disease. When that happens, inflammation can be harmful and cause long-term damage. We have discovered that a small protein called ISG15 is important in the inflammation response. We came across ISG15 during research we were conducting looking at how inflammation causes heart disease. Heart disease and kidney disease often happen together in people with diabetes. In our work leading to this project, we have found that ISG15 may also be important in kidney disease in diabetes. In this proposal, we will use model systems, cells grown in Petri dishes and human samples to understand the role of ISG15 in kidney disease in diabetes. We hope that the findings from this research could lead to the development of a new treatment to reduce kidney disease in diabetes that works by blocking inflammation.