Dialysis patient hopes for wearable kidney

Dialysis patient hopes for wearable kidney

Posted By FIONA ISAACSON
Posted 1 day ago

Ken Sharp wants the Canadian government and researchers to get on board with the United States to develop new treatments for kidney disease.

Sharp has spent more than 30 years on dialysis and more than a decade trying to raise awareness and push for research.

March is Kidney Month.

"This country is still settling back and doing nothing," Sharp said. Sharp is interested in the potential for a so-called wearable kidneys. Worn on a belt around the waist, a device provides continue dialysis treatment. None are currently on the market.

A pilot study on a device created by Victor Gura at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA was published in the medical journal The Lancet in December. It concluded the device showed promise but further study is needed.

"Why shouldn't we have it here?" asked Sharp, who has been on dialysis since age 20. He's now in his late 40s.

It would be more cost efficient, with no nurses needed for treatment and no time would be wasted in a dialysis chair for four hours at a time, Sharp said.

The continuous treatment is also better for the patient, he said.

Dr. David Humes, with the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (Peterborough's twin city), has known Sharp for about 10 years.

Sharp has "an interest and a passion that is greater than other people I've met," he said.

"I think it's been very helpful for the community to have Ken as a spokesperson ... to maintain awareness of some of the devastating disease processes that affect some of the patients," Humes said.

Humes is actively trying to partner with Canadian researchers to expand his work on bioartificial kidneys.

He's trying to collaborate with Dr. Sheldon Tobe, at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, and is awaiting regulatory approval from Health Canada.

"(Canada has) access to similar types of patients. We can expand an evaluation to a broader spectrum of patients and the regulatory processes, sometimes, are a little bit faster for review process."

While progress is being made there are still hurdles, Humes said.

Wearable kidney devices such as Gura's, which Humes is also exploring, require a way to make the body do something it doesn't want to do.

The device draws blood from a patient, circulates it through a tube outside the body, purifies it, and then pumps it back into the body. Blood naturally wants to clot when it comes in contact with air or a "foreign material," which would prevent it from flowing into the tube, Humes said.

"Trying to fool the body into thinking that it shouldn't clot is a technological hurdle," he said.

Humes's main focus is developing a bioartificial kidney that can implanted.

Cleaning the kidney with dialysis doesn't fully restore all of its function, Humes explained.

The kidney removes toxins from the body, but also produces things such as vitamin D and hormones for blood pressure control.

Damaged or diseased kidneys are missing cells to provide those other components, Humes said.

Eventually, Humes would like to inject healthy cells into a damage kidney or implant a bioartificial one. First he needs to test providing cell therapy through a wearable device - blood pumped into the device would pick up the appropriate cells and bring them back to the body.

"This will improve the ability to replace kidney function and make the patient probably fell better and live longer," Humes said.

"I hope there will be, soon, some collaboration with the Canadian health system and Canadian researchers so that we can expand the testing of these types of devices," he said.

The Kidney Foundation of Canada said they are unaware of any research in the country being done bioartificial or wearable kidneys, but supports innovative approaches, said Irene Aguzzi.

Tobe could not be reached for comment.

fisaacson@peterboroughexaminer.com

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