Diana Karpman, a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Lund. Her goal is to obtain more specific treatments for various kidney diseases. NOTE – This article is machine translated from Swedish.
As a researcher Diana Karpman would like to learn more about the causes of renal failure in children and adults. She is a pediatrician and one of Sweden’s foremost experts on EHEC infection comorbidity HOUSE.
It was one of Diana Karpmans patients who led her into the profession of researcher, a child who had kidney failure by an infection. The case was unusual and did that she began to read on.
— I was interested to go and got the chance to do a study of EHEC induced renal failure. It became part of my doctoral thesis.
Summer 2011 figured Diana Karpman as an expert in the media in connection with the large outbreak of EHEC infection caused by contaminated food. Then hit just over 4 000 people in Europe of the infection and the disease got 900 HOUSES as a result of the infection.
— We do now analyses on samples from patients who fell ill in order to learn more about how the bacterium affects the blood and kidneys.
Diana Karpmans research group at the University of Lund, focuses on grundmekanismerna in kidney disease. Through to discern what factors at the cellular level that contribute to disease can eventually develop new, more specific therapies.
— It is necessary. Today, we have learned to understand mechanisms underlying various kidney diseases but they still treated similarly. Our project is to instead be able to inhibit what initiates the disease processes, “she said.
The research team is studying four different kidney diseases
The first, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) provides anemia and acute renal failure. It is available in two variants, of which the most common is caused by EHEC-bacteria in your gut.
— It is almost only children affected by HOUSE and why we don’t know. They can also get nerve damage which may be expressed in cramps, paralysis and memory disturbance.
The other disease called thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura caused by mutated protein or autoantibodies against proteins in the blood plasma, giving plugs that affects the kidney.
The third, Vasculitis, is a serious kärlinflammation.
— The cause is unknown, but we have seen that patients with Vasculitis is the activation of a protein system called contact system. Now we want to study how blood cells and cells along vessel walls is activated. We’ll try to inhibit activation of the contact system. If successful, it may be a treatment option in the future, “says Diana.
The fourth disease, IgA nephropathy, the most common form of inflammation of the renal cortex.
— It can lead to kidney failure, but why we do not know. IGA is an antibody that are normally found in the mucous membranes. Streptococcus, a common respiratory bacteria, may have IgA-binding proteins on their surface. We are studying if these bacterial proteins that sit in the kidney after a respiratory infection contributes to inflammation.
Diana Karpman has also started a research school that provides support for clinicians young researchers in Skåne, something she herself lacked during their studies.
Thanks to the grant from Lagrange Research Foundation has Diana Karpman and her colleagues have been able to buy a device, called a workflow system, which mimics the flow of blood in the vessel.
— It gives us a unique opportunity to explore all the content in the blood including foreign bacteria, their toxins and also what sets off inflammation in artery walls. This technique is used so far only in a few research labs in the world and now opens the new roads for us.
Text: Monica Havström