Increasing podocyte NDUFS4 for diabetic kidney disease

Overexpressing the mitochondrial complex 1 subunit NDUFS4 in podocytes could help treat diabetic kidney disease by promoting NDUFS4’s interaction with the cristae regulatory protein STOML2, which prevents pathogenic cristae remodeling and mitochondrial fission that compromises podocytes’ role in glomerular filtration.

NDUFS4 mRNA and protein expression was lower in kidney glomeruli samples from diabetic kidney disease patients than from healthy individuals. In diabetic kidney disease patients, glomeruli NDUFS4 protein expression positively correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function, and negatively correlated with urinary albumin excretion rate. In bioinformatic analysis of public data sets from diabetic kidney disease patients, glomeruli NDUSF4 mRNA expression was positively correlated with eGFR. ...