Neuraminidase 1 promotes renal fibrosis development in male mice

On March 27, 2023, Lian-Wen Qi and Lei Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, China, and their team published a paper titled “Neuraminidase 1 promotes renal fibrosis development in male mice” in Nature Communications. This study characterizes a promotor role for NEU1 in renal fibrosis and suggests a potential avenue of targeting NEU1 to treat kidney diseases.

The antibody [FITC-Linked Polyclonal Antibody to Kidney Injury Molecule 1 (Kim1), LAA785Mu81] of Cloud-Clone brand was chosed in this article, we are so proud for supporting the reaserchers.

The functions of the influenza virus neuraminidase has been well documented but those of the mammalian neuraminidases remain less explored. Here, we characterize the role of neuraminidase 1 (NEU1) in unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) and folic acid (FA)-induced renal fibrosis mouse models. We find that NEU1 is significantly upregulated in the fibrotic kidneys of patients and mice. Functionally, tubular epithelial cell-specific NEU1 knockout inhibits epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, inflammatory cytokines production, and collagen deposition in mice. Conversely, NEU1 overexpression exacerbates progressive renal fibrosis. Mechanistically, NEU1 interacts with TGFβ type I receptor ALK5 at the 160-200aa region and stabilizes ALK5 leading to SMAD2/3 activation. Salvianolic acid B, a component of Salvia miltiorrhiza, is found to strongly bind to NEU1 and effectively protect mice from renal fibrosis in a NEU1-dependent manner. Collectively, this study characterizes a promotor role for NEU1 in renal fibrosis and suggests a potential avenue of targeting NEU1 to treat kidney diseases.