Application for Summer 2017 Vacation Scholarship (360G-Wellcome-206738_Z_17_Z)

Anaemia is one of the major health complications in patients suffering from end-stage chronic kidney disease and its prevalence is further accentuated by administration of dialysis as treatment. Anaemia contributes significantly to both the morbidity and debilitating condition of these patients. Iron supplementation to treat anaemia is beset by the consequences of toxicity of excess free iron. Histidine had previously been identified as an inert adjunct that could be employed with iron in the treatment of anaemia of kidney disease (KD). However, none of these studies adequately investigated the molecular mechanisms by which L-histidine could be exerting iron detoxifying properties in the management of anaemia of KD. The project entitled "L-histidine ameliorates iron-induced oxidative stress damage in the kidney" aims to investigate the mechanism by which L-histidine and its derivatives could be used as co-supplements with iron to ameliorate iron toxicity in the treatment of anaemia of kidney disease. The overall hypothesis of the proposed study is that histidine, as an iron chelating buffer, exerts cytoprotective amelioration on iron-induced oxidative stress in vivo in mouse kidney and in vitro in HK-2 cells.