Renagel for PXE?

click to listen (1.4 MB)

By Deborah M. Clark

Dr. Mark Lebwohl, head of Dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, has received a $490,000 grant from the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the drug, Renagel, in the treatment of PXE.

Renagel was developed primarily for the treatment of end-stage renal disease patients. Patients who suffer from kidney failure due to hyperphosphatemia, or too much phosphorous in the bloodstream, respond well to treatment with Renagel.

Renagel is a phosphorus binder that contains no aluminum or calcium and is made of sevelamer hydrochloride on anhydrous bases. The human body tries to stay in a state of homeostasis, or balance, in the ratio of phosphorous to calcium. So the potential benefit to those with PXE is that as phosphorous is lowered in the bloodstream, so too is calcium. Calcifications of certain of the body's elastin fibers are serious symptoms of PXE. Renegel then acts as a robotic agent that is not absorbed into the body and may reduce calcification. And here's some good news: there is no calcium bone loss of renal disease patients treated with Renagel and it has been shown to have the additional benefit of lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Dr. Lebwohl thinks that Renagel might reverse some of the effects of calcification in PXE patients' skin flexural areas, Bruch's membrane, and the vascular circulatory system. It would be terrific if he proves correct.