The ENCODE study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exosome release following acute cycling exercise in chronic kidney disease
IRAS ID
320122
Contact name
Emma Watson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a growing health problem across the world. A common complication of CKD is cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the biggest cause of death in this population. However, we do not have any treatments for CVD that are specifically for kidney patients. This means we are unable to reduce the number of people that develop CVD, or reduce deaths.
Our group undertook the CYCLE-HD study to see if cycling during dialysis could improve the health of people’s hearts. This study showed that people who took part in the 6-month cycling programme had improvements in heart structure. However, the level of exercise that people were able to do was very low, and so the factors that led to these improvements in heart health are unknown. Knowing this information will help us to develop other treatments that are also able to give the same benefits as the exercise did, which is important because not all patients are able, or want to take part in exercise.
Here we will test a new idea that these improvements could have been caused by cellular crosstalk. This means that one tissue like the muscles, may release genetic information in the form of very short pieces of RNA known as microRNAs, in exosomes following exercise. Exosomes are very small vesicles that are released from most cells, they travel in the blood and are taken up by another organ, like the heart, where they have beneficial effects.
The aims of this study are to determine if microRNA’s are released from skeletal muscle following cycling in patients with CKD, and if they may have played a role in the improvements in heart health that were seen following training in the CYCLE-HD study.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/PR/1510
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jan 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion