CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Researchers at UVA Health and Mount Sinai have unlocked why more than half the people with chronic kidney disease ultimately die of cardiovascular issues.
Uta Erdbrügger, MD, an internal medicine physician-scientist with the University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Division of Nephrology, and colleagues have found, according to a UVA Health release, “culprit: particles called ‘circulating extracellular vesicles’ produced in diseased kidneys” that ultimately poison the heart.
Extracellular vesicles are produced by almost all cells and serve as important messengers by carrying proteins and other materials to other cells. But the extracellular vesicles produced in kidneys with CKD carry small, non-coding RNA called miRNA that are toxic to the heart, the researchers determined according to the release…