Kids Kidney Research

Haemolytic Uraemic syndrome (HUS) is the leading reason why children’s kidneys fail and require kidney dialysis. It occurs most commonly after contracting infection with bacteria called e coli through food poisoning. This bacterium then produces a toxin that binds to cells in the body that express a receptor called Gb3. In children the toxin attacks the filtering unit of the kidney called the glomerulus. We do not know how the toxin causes the kidneys to fail but recently it has been shown that when a cell in the kidney called the podocyte stops making a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor then a disease very similar to HUS occurs. We would like to investigate if the toxin produced by e coli causes the podocyte to stop making VEGF and results in HUS. If this is the case then we hope new treatments might be found to treat this serious childhood disease.