New Research Suggests That The Migraine Drug Lasmiditan May Be A Promising Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) Treatment
The drug lasmiditan, which is sold under the brand name Reyvow, is currently used as an acute migraine treatment among adults.
In 2019, its U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval was monumental– since other migraine drugs on the market had use limitations among patients with a history of prior heart attack, angina, or other vascular conditions.
Lasmiditan, on the other hand, worked without causing blood vessels to narrow.
And now, new research conducted by researchers from the University of Arizona has found that the drug may also be a promising treatment for acute kidney injury (AKI)– also known as acute renal failure (ARF).
According to the National Kidney Foundation, AKI is “a sudden episode of kidney failure or kidney damage that happens within a few hours or a few days.”
The disease causes waste products to build up in patients’ blood– making it difficult for the kidneys to maintain proper body fluid balance. This can also impact other organs, including the heart, brain, and lungs.
AKI occurs in between 8 to 16 percent of hospitalization cases– impacting over 13 million people around the globe.
The causes of the disease range from low blood pressure (known as hypotension), decreased heart function, and organ failure to severe allergic reactions and burns.
AKI can also lead to a number of physiological issues, including damage to kidney small blood vessels, the loss of renal tubular function, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Right now, there is also no treatment for the disease.
nenetus – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
While working to develop an AKI drug treatment, though, the University of Arizona team treated an AKI mouse model with lasmiditan. They found that the migraine drug stimulated the recovery of kidney function.
This included reduced fibrosis, reduced proximal tubule damage, improved vascular integrity, and mitochondrial biogenesis– or the cellular process responsible for producing new mitochondria depending upon physiological and environmental changes.
So, since the FDA has already approved lasmiditan, the study’s lead author Rich Schnellmann, Ph.D., believes it could easily be repurposed for AKI cases.
Further research is warranted before then. But, Schnellman is confident that the study’s results are promising and point to an AKI treatment on the horizon.
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in the American Journal Of Physiology, visit the link here.
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