BMP-7 Reverses Kidney Failure!

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Impatient
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:01 pm

BMP-7 Reverses Kidney Failure!

Post by Impatient »

Bone Morphogenic Protein 7 (BMP-7)has been shown to reverse kidney failure in mice and rats almost a year and a half ago. BMP-7 is a signaling protein found in healthy kidneys and is absent in diseased kidneys.
BMP-7 has been used in humans to heal bone fractures. It works well, has no side effects and doesn't require immune suppression drugs!

I am a caregiver and wrote them stating that we wanted to try the therapy. I was given a cold shoulder, which left me puzzled.
I don't understand what right they have to deny a treatment to someone who wants to try it. In this time they have accomplished very little as far as I can tell. BMP-7 was originally discovered by Curis, who sold the rights to Ortho Biotech (part of Johnson & Johnson). Ortho Biotech owns the rights to Epogen which is used by kidney failure patients to control anemia. Epogen has sales of 2 billion dollar a year. Can you say possible conflict of interest? BMP-7 will most likely make Epogen's use unnecessary. I like to believe that they would do the right thing and put the highest priority on it, but they haven't.

So if they won't do the trial, why can't I get our own kidney doctor to prescribe it and have him monitor her. Nope. Why haven't they tested it on a terminal patient? Don't know. I could try to order some myself, but there are several laws that I would be breaking eventhough it's not a controlled substance like morphine. A doctor can prescribe morphine, so it's actually easier to get than this naturally produced human protein!

I've come to the conclusion that the government is inept. How can it cost $500 million dollars to get a new drug approved by the FDA when a research mouse costs four dollars?

A year and a half is an extremely long time when your health is failing. What right do they have to stop us. It's non-addictive with no known side effects. I just can't stand to think about all of the pain ,suffering and deaths that could have been avoided.

It's time to start making some noise. If the kidney can regenerate itself, I know the liver can as well (may need some other signaling protein). They can cut the thing in half and it will grow back!

Tell everyone you know to spread the word and write letters to the press, your senators, FDA, Ortho Biotech, etc.

It may be premature, but the era of transplants may be ending and the sooner the better!

http://ndt.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/4/759
Impatient
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:01 pm

Response from another bulletin board

Post by Impatient »

1. "RE: BMP-7 Reverses Kidney Failure!"
In response to message #0


Are you talking about self testing? Seems that's the only way to get around the ethical and legal barriers currently in place. I found the studies you seem to be referring to at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... s=12753291
and http://www.content-wire.com/biotech/bio ... 32&cs=1692
BMP-7 seems to be available for "appropriate" testing purposes:

http://www.4adi.com/kits/hormones/100190b7h.html

Have you talked to folks at the National Kidney Foundation yet? Perhaps they have an idea how to compensate Ortho Biotech for the reduced sales of Procrit they might experience if BMP-7 proves out as a way to mitigate some forms of ESRD. They'd have the clout to get a hearing, too.







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Impatient
unregistered user
13-Oct-04, 11:00 AM (EST)

2. "RE: BMP-7 Reverses Kidney Failure!"
In response to message #1

There is nothing unethical about some one making a decision to
improve their health. Why are there legal constraints? This is a naturally produced protein that is found in healthy people and is absent in people with kidney failure. This substance is not some chemical concocted in a test tube that requires large amounts of data to show that it is safe to use. It is already being used by 6 billion people to keep their kidneys and bones healthy.
BMP-7 was first discovered for its bone healing abilities, hence the name "Bone Morphogenic Protein". Then about a year and a half ago they discovered its kidney healing abilities.

http://ndt.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/4/759


The government spends over 10 billion dollars a year just on dialysis treatments, so they could easily write Ortho Biotech a check for a half billion dollars and still be way ahead.

My point is that this may be the ultimate cure for kidney failure. No pain other than a needle prick. No ethical concerns of any kind. No kidney rejection and no immune suppression drugs.

Makes you wonder why it hasn't made the news?
Mike
Posts: 1594
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:47 pm
Location: Mansfield :o)

Post by Mike »

first off I don't fully understand what the sites are saying as they are very complex so I may be wrong but from what I understood it's main benefit is a reduction in damage to the bone marrow and it does appear to halt glomerular sclerosis but I couldn't see anything about reversing the damage? All drugs are subjected to years of testing before before using it in clinical studies as humans don't react the same way as mice and if they were to release a drug without fully understanding the potential side effects the results could be catastrophic!
Impatient
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:01 pm

Read the link that I provided not the other guys links

Post by Impatient »

6 billion people already have this protein in their blood (it is produced in healthy kidneys). During Kidney failure the kidneys are damaged and stop producing the very protein that would instruct the cells in the kidneys to repair themselves.

Remember, this is a naturally occurring human protein and some strange artificial chemical that was developed in a lab.

They could easily try it on one of the thousands of people who are too weak to survive surgery. They have nothing to lose. We offered to be in the study and got no response. I don't see where they done any new studies in a year and a half. That to me is criminal. If they aren't going to develop this revolutionary cure, they should not have bought the rights to it.

Read this website:

http://ndt.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/4/759
JMan
Posts: 3471
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:21 am
Location: Lives in a slightly weird bit of Shropshire called Telford!

Post by JMan »

Hi I took a look at the website you gave and it seems to me that you are jumping ahead a bit.


A, it *mainly* refers to acute, not chronic renal failure (although it IS briefly cited in ref 35in the bib.). In treatments cases acute can sort itself with current conventional treatments. A case to cite is the recent British olympic athlete who suffered a kidney infection, now fully recovered. Had it been chronic failure he might well be on a dialysis machine.

You need to read that study carefully, they don't actually know how it works yet.

>providing mechanistic insights

>potentially accounts for the positive effect of BMP-7

>toxicity will potentially be minimal or insignificant (they 'think' eg this is uncertain)

It gives no raw stats. How many mice/rats did they run this on? how many times etc..?

they state, in conclusion that the results are 'intriguing' but further studies are needed BEFORE its human trialled. There are a lot of 'if's' and 'maybe's' in the research.

I can fully see your situation, but I'm not sure I'd be queing to be one of the first human 'lab rats'. Many other things look promising also, stem cell research, Roy Calne's 'Campath H' protocol, ISOteknica ISA247.

Calling it a 'revolutionary cure' is a bit far fetched at this stage, though your entitled to your opinion.

Just my 2p's worth and good luck with whichever road you ultimatley decide to pursue.

J
Impatient
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:01 pm

Please read and re-read the website

Post by Impatient »

From: http://ndt.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/4/759


"Early studies in rats and mice with acute renal injury revealed significant acceleration in the recovery of renal function and histology upon treatment with recombinant human BMP-7 (rhBMP-7) [18]. Similar effects were also observed in different chronic models of renal injury in mice and rats [29–35]. In comparative studies, the reno-protective effect of rhBMP-7 was significantly better than the effect of enalapril in rat models of diabetic nephropathy and unilateral urethral obstruction (UUO) [29,36]. More importantly, administration of rhBMP-7 even resulted in regeneration of chronically injured kidneys [35,36]. "


Read the last sentence three times. It says "...chronically injured kidneys"


"These studies suggest that endogenous BMP-7 functions as a regulator of kidney homeostasis, potentially by counteracting endogenous TGF-ß1 mediated action. During renal injury, when the balance shifts towards TGF-ß1 mediated effects (due to an increase of TGF-ß1 and/or decrease of BMP-7 signalling), administration of exogenous rhBMP-7 can potentially restore the balance in the kidney to achieve homeostasis. In this regard, an endogenous molecule known as decorin inhibits TGF-ß1 activity by trapping it extracellularly and ameliorates progression of TGF-ß1 induced chronic renal fibrosis [39]. "

Again, on the last sentence; do you see "chronic renal fibrosis"?


What upsets me is that they could have done many more studies in a year and and half's time. There are 60,000 people on the transplant list in the U.S. and many tens of thousands more around the world who would benefit! Dialysis costs the U.S. government 10 billion dollars a year! What does it take to expedite the research that IF IT WORKS WOULD COMPLETELY REVOLUTION THE TREATMENT OF KIDNEY FAILURE AS WELL AS END THE TRANSPLANT ERA. The number of people on the transplant list would drop from 80,000 to 20,000. Then you could use some of the money saved from dialysis to figure how to make the liver heal itself. That would drop the transplant list down to about 5000 people. Stem cells have been shown to repair hearts so using some of the money on stem cell research would drop the list down to a few thousand people needing lung transplants and intestines. Thus ending the transplant era for the majority of the population.
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