2. Academic Validation
  3. Podocyte-specific KLF6 primes proximal tubule CaMK1D signaling to attenuate diabetic kidney disease

Podocyte-specific KLF6 primes proximal tubule CaMK1D signaling to attenuate diabetic kidney disease

  • Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 13;15(1):8038. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52306-5.
Nehaben A Gujarati # 1,  Bismark O Frimpong # 1,  Malaika Zaidi 1,  Robert Bronstein 1,  Monica P Revelo 2,  John D Haley 3,  Igor Kravets 4,  Yiqing Guo 1,  Sandeep K Mallipattu 5 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
  • 2 Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
  • 3 Department of Pharmacology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
  • 4 Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
  • 5 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA. sandeep.mallipattu@stonybrookmedicine.edu.
  • 6 Renal Section, Northport VA Medical Center, Northport, NY, USA. sandeep.mallipattu@stonybrookmedicine.edu.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 39271683 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52306-5
Abstract

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the main cause of chronic kidney disease worldwide. While injury to the podocytes, visceral epithelial cells that comprise the glomerular filtration barrier, drives albuminuria, proximal tubule (PT) dysfunction is the critical mediator of DKD progression. Here, we report that the podocyte-specific induction of human KLF6, a zinc-finger binding transcription factor, attenuates podocyte loss, PT dysfunction, and eventual interstitial fibrosis in a male murine model of DKD. Utilizing combination of snRNA-seq, snATAC-seq, and tandem mass spectrometry, we demonstrate that podocyte-specific KLF6 triggers the release of secretory ApoJ to activate calcium/Calmodulin dependent protein kinase 1D (CaMK1D) signaling in neighboring PT cells. CaMK1D is enriched in the first segment of the PT, proximal to the podocytes, and is critical to attenuating mitochondrial fission and restoring mitochondrial function under diabetic conditions. Targeting podocyte-PT signaling by enhancing ApoJ-CaMK1D might be a key therapeutic strategy in attenuating the progression of DKD.

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