PKD Life - Fall 2020 - 22

THE RESEARCH REPORT

When a Global
Pandemic
Shuts Down
Your Research
How two PKD
researchers are coping

Kristen Nowak,
Ph.D., M.P.H.,
and
Stephen Seliger,
M.D.

the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early spring,
W hen
hospitals canceled elective surgeries and other

procedures. They also halted the majority of clinical trials
underway, setting researchers back months, if not years,
in their work. We talked to two PKD researchers about the
impact of the pandemic on their studies.

DIET AND PKD RESEARCH

Kristen Nowak, Ph.D., M.P.H., an associate professor at
the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus
in Aurora, recently received a $160,000 grant from the
PKD Foundation to fund research on the impact of diet
and adiposity on PKD disease progression. The goal is to
enroll 30 people with the disease in a small pilot study
to evaluate the effects of time-restricted feeding (i.e., an
extended overnight fast) on kidney disease. All participants will receive education with a registered dietitian
on the best-practice dietary recommendations for PKD,
while half will also be trained on time-restricted feeding,
in which they will fit their meals into the eight hours
after waking up and then fast until the next day.
"There is a lot of animal research related to various dietary regimens in rodent models of PKD that

suggested this extended fast
could be beneficial in slowing the cyst growth in the
kidney," Dr. Nowak says. "It's
likely that certain pathways
overlap between the growth
of cysts and metabolism,
and that fasting may slow
that growth by inhibiting
some proteins and activating others."
She and her team were
awarded the grant for the
study when COVID-19 hit.
While it was relatively
simple to delay the start of
that trial, Dr. Nowak was also
in the midst of another study
looking at the effects of calorie restriction with and without intermittent fasting on
people with PKD. That study
involves 27 people in three

groups, half of whom are
restricting calories every day
but can eat whenever they
want; and half of whom eat a
very low number of calories
three days a week but can eat
more other days.
Participants were scattered throughout the country.
While the first group was able
to finish the study before the
pandemic began, the second
was supposed to return to
Colorado in late April for

BRIAN STAUFFER/THE ISPOT

By Debra Gordon

P K D L I F E * FA L L 2 0 2 0

PKD_FA20_22-23_ResearchReport.indd 22

9/23/20 9:16 AM

PKD Life - Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PKD Life - Fall 2020