Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Anandpur, April 26:

With more than 20 young people – most of them below 25 years of age – dying within a year’s span due to renal diseases, panic has gripped a cluster of tribal dominated villages on either side of the National Highway in Odisha’s mineral rich Keonjhar district.

Besides the 20 dead, several others in Gohira, Uparsahi, Badasahi, Patharkundisahi, Mahisabahali, Kalabila and Sunatangiri located not very far from the block headquarters are battling for their lives after being afflicted with the disease.

While villagers are succumbing one after another to the disease, the Health department has limited its activities to merely conducting a survey with no efforts to contain it. Astoundingly, the Health department is yet to find out the cause behind the spread of the disease and the resultant deaths though it has been prevalent for more than a year now.

In the last one year, eight have died of the disease in Uparsahi, seven in Badasahi, five in Patharkundisahi and three in Sunatangiri.  Kamal Kumar Nayak, Biranchi Nayak and Kanaklata Nayak of the last named village have died of the disease in the last one month. More than 20 are currently bedridden after being afflicted with the disease. With the death of the earning members, the families are living in penury and are broke.

Most of the deaths have occurred after prolonged suffering. While villagers earlier believed the spread of the disease was due to high iron content in the drinking water in the area, now suspect it to be a case of wtchcraft.

Left with no option, tribals have requisitioned the services of witch doctors to ascertain the cause behind the spread of the disease and its arrest. A priest from Champua and local dehurys have begun pooja from Saturday evening at the village. Villagers participating in the pooja said that the reason behind the disease and the deaths will be ascertained very soon. Around five thousand villagers have participated in the pooja leaving their work.

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Researchers identify molecules that help cells to pinpoint their position

For the kidneys to function flawlessly, millions of cells must be arranged precisely according to a specified blueprint. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and Philipps-Üniversität Marburg have now discovered that kidney cells send signals to neighbouring cells undergoing division to organize the repairing of the kidneys after acute renal failure. The findings may help in future to improve the regeneration of damaged organs.

The kidneys continuously filter waste and toxic substances from the blood, which are then removed from the body via the urine. Filtration occurs in numerous microscopic tubes, known as tubules, the inner surface of which is covered by epithelial cells. Similar to boat planking, the individual epithelial cells in the tubules must be precisely arranged for the kidneys to function normally.

Intensive-care patients often suffer kidney failure, during which some of the epithelial cells die. The resulting gaps are closed by surviving epithelial cells from the surrounding area, which divide to form new cells. However, it is crucial for the new cells to be positioned at precisely the right location. If this is not the case, dividing cells could block the bore of the tubules and impair the function of the kidneys.

The spatial arrangement of the dividing epithelial cells is determined by the orientation of the spindle apparatus, a bundle of protein threads that pull the chromosomes towards the opposite poles of the cell and distributes them equally between the new cells. The Research Group led by Thomas Worzfeld at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and at the Pharmacological Institute in Marburg have now investigated how the orientation of the spindle apparatus is controlled during cell division.

To this effect, the scientists from Bad Nauheim and Marburg discovered that neighbouring epithelial cells communicate with each other with the help of signal molecules. In this way they influence the orientation of the spindle apparatus and control the spatial arrangement of the new cells. “As in a GPS system, there are antennas that receive signals. This function is assumed by the plexin B2 receptor, which receives a location signal from neighbouring cells,” explains Worzfeld.

The location signal itself consists of a group of signal molecules called semaphorins. Through genetic manipulation, Worzfeld’s Group switches off individual semaphorins in mice. As a result, the epithelial cells no longer arrange themselves correctly and block the tubules. “We observed the same phenomenon in mice lacking the plexin B2 receptor, meaning the antenna,” says Worzfeld.

In both cases, the damaged kidney was unable to regenerate, and it remained functionally impaired. “In this study we discovered a previously unknown function of the plexin B2 receptor and its binding partners, the semaphorins,” explains Worzfeld. It involves a fundamental mechanism by which the kidneys heal following renal failure. The scientists now want to investigate whether plexin B2 and the semaphorins also play a role in the repair of other organisms and in diseases such as cancer.

  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, München

MH/HR

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Brain Signaling at Near-Death Might Accelerate Cardiac Failure

Results from a recent study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology revealed that the risk of cardiac arrest in patients on dialysis due to kidney failure might be attributable to inherited factors. According to the researchers, studies are needed to identify candidate genes that modify cardiovascular risk in end-stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

ESRD is when the kidneys stop working properly and patients need to live on dialysis or to have a kidney transplant. Most cases of ESRD are caused by diabetes or high blood pressure.  Studies have shown that patients on dialysis are 20 times more likely to have a cardiac arrest compared with the general population.

To assess whether inherited factors were associate with cardiac arrest among patients with end-stage Renal Disease, in their study titled “Heritability of Risk for Sudden Cardiac Arrest in ESRD,” Kevin Chan, MD MSc (Massachusetts General Hospital and Fresenius Medical Care North America) and his colleagues examined a sample of 647,457 patients on chronic dialysis, and identified 5117 pairs of patients who came from the same family. Then each of these patients were matched to a control patient from the same population.

The results revealed that genetically related family members who did not lived together were 1.88 times more likely to have cardiac arrest in comparison with their controls, while genetically related family members who cohabitated were 1.66 times more like to have cardiac arrest. Spouses, who are genetically unrelated but cohabited in the same environment, were only 0.95 times more likely to have cardiac arrest.

“These findings advance the science because they suggest that genetic factors—or differences in DNA sequence—contribute to the high risk of sudden death among patients on dialysis,” said Dr. Chan in a recent news release. “It paves the way for more detailed genetic studies in the dialysis population to find specific genes that could explain the high risk of cardiac arrest and potentially new treatments for these patients.”

• Tags
• cardiac arrest
• dialysis
• kidneys

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Daniela Semedo, PhD Daniela is a PhD researcher in the field of Clinical Psychology/Psychiatry. Her main fields of interest are Psychopathology and Prevention of Psychotic Disorders in clinical populations.

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