Steven Artandi and his colleagues have found that dedifferentiation and proliferation of kidney podocytes as a result of TERT or Wnt signaling leads to a collapsing glomerulopathy phenotype in mice, similar to that seen in HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) in humans, and that inhibiting these pathways corrected disease progression. They also found that TERT expression and Wnt activity is elevated in a mouse model of HIVAN and in human HIVAN renal samples, suggesting possible targets to treat this disease.
- Marina Shkreli
- Kavita Y Sarin
- Steven E Artandi
