OUR MISSION
A short summary of the problem and why we are so determined to solve it
Chronic kidney disease
A serious problem
More than 850 million people in the world have a chronic kidney disease (CKD), a number that is still on the rise. CKD is a collective term for a wide variety of progressive, irreversible diseases, ultimately leading to kidney failure.
In many of these diseases, damage is done to the glomerulus, the filtration unit of the kidney. In response to this damage, inflammation is initiated, which often causes more damage, constituting a vicious cycle, ultimately leading to complete kidney failure.
Once insufficient kidney function is left, endogenous toxins start to accumulate in the body, slowly poisoning the person. In this stage the only options left are dialysis or kidney transplantation.
Current treatment of CKD
“A zero sum game”
The various chronic kidney diseases differ from another in the underlying condition, such as diabetes, hypertension, HIV and/or auto-immune diseases, that caused the initial damage and started the vicious cycle leading to kidney failure.
Despite the differences in aetiology, glomerular inflammation is the driving factor behind progression in each of these diseases. Therefore, the major component of CKD treatment consists of immune suppression drugs, and has been for the last 50 years.
The systemic nature of these drugs is the reason for the frequently reported horrific side-effects including fatigue, infections, infertility and even cancer.
In many of these diseases, damage is done to the glomerulus, the filtration unit of the kidney. In response to this damage, inflammation is initiated, which often causes more damage, constituting a vicious cycle, ultimately leading to complete kidney failure.
Once insufficient kidney function is left, endogenous toxins start to accumulate in the body, slowly poisoning the person. In this stage the only options left are dialysis or kidney transplantation.
Our mission
Precision medicine for CKD
These side-effects are often so severe that they become dose-limiting, thereby leading to a insufficiently treated chronic kidney disease. Therefore, patients often still progress towards kidney failure and dialysis-dependence.
Therefore, there is a great need for new medication for CKD. At Mercurna, we are developing an effective, kidney-specific treatment without systemic side-effects, based on our unique targeting technology.
Using a peptide, we are able to deliver mRNA, encoding for therapeutic proteins, straight into the glomerulus, without interfering with the rest of the body in order to prevent side-effects.
