20: PKD for Bre

Bre's Birthday: PKD Foundation Support

First, what is PKD? PKD stands for Polycystic Kidney Disease.

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, ADPKD, is one of the most common, life-threatening genetic diseases. In ADPKD, fluid-filled cysts develop and enlarge in both kidneys, eventually leading to kidney failure. It is the fourth leading cause of kidney failure and more than 50 percent of people with ADPKD will develop kidney failure by age 50. Once a person has kidney failure, dialysis or a transplant are the only options.
ADPKD is a painful disease that impacts quality of life. The average size of a typical kidney is a human fist. Polycystic kidneys can get much larger, some growing as large as a football, and weighing up to 30 pounds each. https://pkdcure.org/what-is-pkd/adpkd/

PKD Foundation is "the only organization in the U.S. solely dedicated to finding treatments and a cure for PKD to improve the lives of those it affects."I am dedicating today's Donations by the Dozen to PKD Foundation for my friend, Breanna Pertee. It's Bre's Birthday today and this is her charity of choice, because her mother has been suffering from PKD since being diagnosed at age 24. Bre also lost her grandmother and great grandmother to PKD. Research, treatment methods, and a cure are essential for those affected by PKD, so we wanted to feature it here today. Bre's quote of the day is, "The past is behind us, learn from it.The future is head, prepare for it. The present is here, live it." by Thomas S. Monson. Here in the present,  Happy Birthday and I hope you live it up today.

After making the donation for Donations by the Dozen (I donate before I post just in case something goes awry), my confirmation email included some excellent recent developments. 

This is an exciting time for PKD research! Five potential treatments are in clinical trials for PKD, including the repurposing of pioglitazone, a type 2 diabetes drug, partially funded by the Foundation. The others include metformin, niacinamide (vitamin B3), tesevatinib and tolvaptan. Another important and encouraging recent development was the first ADPKD Biomarker Summit, initiated, sponsored and facilitated by the Foundation. The Summit gave us an opportunity to meet with representatives from eight pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies from the U.S., Canada and Europe, and other key leaders to better define the regulatory path to approval of novel therapeutic candidates for treatment early in the course of PKD. Every day brings us closer to a day when no one will suffer the full effects of PKD.

If you'd like to know more about PKD, the PKD Foundation offers a free information packet. Obviously I suggest getting the digital version to save them costs, but you can also order the hard copy:click here to get to the packet ordering page

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