The UAB Department of Urology continues to be a leader in kidney stone research. The department’s research focuses on endogenous oxalate synthesis, and has been leading the field in using state-of-the-art technology, including RNA interference, to modify the pathways involved in oxalate synthesis. This research has led to clinical treatment studies in a hereditary kidney stone disease, primary hyperoxaluria. Further, the department continues to expand its clinical and translational research with a focus on the role of obesity, diabetes and liver disease in kidney stone disease. 

Tanecia Mitchell, Ph.D. and Sonia Fargue, Ph.D. have received NIH K01 grants, and John Knight. Ph.D. received a RO1 grant in the last year. Kyle Wood. M.D. was added as faculty last year and has research grants from the American Urological Association, Rare Kidney Stone Consortium and intramural grants from the Nutrition and Obesity Research Center. 

John Knight, Ph.D., was recently the senior author of an article February 2017 in Journal of the American Society of Nephrology titled An Investigational RNAi Therapeutic Targeting Glycolate Oxidase Reduces Oxalate Production in Models of Primary Hyperoxaluria. This article lead Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to begin clinical trials using this target in the treatment of patients with primary hyperoxaluria. This partnership has led to the investigation of other targets, with Kyle Wood, M.D., as the project leader, that could be used to treat kidney stone disease.

Recently, the group presented on the effects in mice of targeting lactate dehydrogenase in the liver using RNA interference. They demonstrated a more than 75 percent decrease in urinary oxalate excretion in a mouse model of primary hyperoxaluria type I, which represents a complete correction of the hereditary abnormality. Primary Hyperoxaluria is a rare genetic disease that results in recurrent kidney stones and ultimately end-stage renal disease. Currently, the only reliable treatment is a kidney/liver transplant.

Billy Tingle, BSRN recently joined the group and has focused on patient recruitment for studies focusing on the role of the microbiome and obesity in kidney stone disease.  Studies are ongoing to determine if subjects can be colonized with Oxalobacter formigenes, a bacterium that is capable of degrading oxalate in the gastrointestinal tract. Colonization with this may reduce kidney stone disease.