Indian-American professor receives a grant of $1.6M by National Institutes of Health (NIH) to protect kidneys from obesity

Dr Tahir Hussain, an Indian-American professor of Pharmacology at the University of Houston, has received a grant of 1.6 million dollars from the National Institutes of Health to examine a kidney cell that could prevent damage from inflammation caused by obesity. The targeted cells express a protein called the angiotensin type 2 receptor, which recently has been indicated to have anti-inflammatory and renoprotective actions. If activated, the AT2R will protect against chronic and acute kidney injury. Dr Hussain, an alumnus of the Aligarh Muslim University, will study the impact of inflammation in kidneys with active AT2R as well as those with no AT2R. This is the first time the receptor’s role to protect kidney structure and function against injury in obese subjects will be investigated.