VA NEPHRON-D: Diabetes iN Nephropathy Study

Summary

Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States. The overall rate of ESRD secondary to diabetes has risen 68% since 1992. Medications that block the renin angiotensin system have been shown to decrease the progression of diabetic nephropathy. The use of an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) has been shown to decrease the risk of progression of kidney disease in two studies of individuals with Type 2 diabetes and proteinuria. Despite the use of an ARB, the incidence of renal failure remained high in the treated group in both studies. The combination of an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) and ARB can lead to more complete blockade of the renin angiotensin system. In diabetic kidney disease, combination therapy has been shown to decrease proteinuria in short-term studies. Although there are encouraging results for improvement in proteinuria there are no data on progression of kidney disease for the use of combination of ACEI and ARB therapy in patients with diabetes. In addition, there could be an increased risk of serious hyperkalemia in individuals with diabetes who receive combination ACEI and ARB. The investigators therefore propose a randomized double blind multi-center clinical trial to assess the effect of combination of ACEI and ARB in patients with diabetes and proteinuria on progression of kidney disease.

Timeline

Start

2008-07

Primary completion

2014-09

Completion

2014-10

Publications

• Background Fried LF, Duckworth W, Zhang JH, O'Connor T, Brophy M, Emanuele N, Huang GD, McCullough PA, Palevsky PM, Seliger S, Warren SR, Peduzzi P; VA NEPHRON-D Investigators. Design of combination angiotensin receptor blocker and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor for treatment of diabetic nephropathy (VA NEPHRON-D). Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2009 Feb;4(2):361-8. doi: 10.2215/CJN.03350708. Epub 2008 Dec 31.
• Results Fried LF, Emanuele N, Zhang JH, Brophy M, Conner TA, Duckworth W, Leehey DJ, McCullough PA, O'Connor T, Palevsky PM, Reilly RF, Seliger SL, Warren SR, Watnick S, Peduzzi P, Guarino P; VA NEPHRON-D Investigators. Combined angiotensin inhibition for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy. N Engl J Med. 2013 Nov 14;369(20):1892-903. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1303154. Epub 2013 Nov 9.
• Results Fried LF, Emanuele N, Zhang JH. Combined angiotensin inhibition in diabetic nephropathy. N Engl J Med. 2014 Feb 20;370(8):779. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc1315504. No abstract available.
• Results Chen SS, Seliger SL, Fried LF. Complete inhibition of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system; where do we stand? Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. 2014 Sep;23(5):449-55. doi: 10.1097/MNH.0000000000000043.
• Results Zimering MB, Zhang JH, Guarino PD, Emanuele N, McCullough PA, Fried LF; Investigators for the VA NEPHRON-D. Endothelial cell autoantibodies in predicting declining renal function, end-stage renal disease, or death in adult type 2 diabetic nephropathy. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2014 Aug 11;5:128. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2014.00128. eCollection 2014.
• Tamargo CL, Coca SG, Thiessen Philbrook H, Hu DG, Ix JH, Shlipak MG, Fried LF, Gutierrez OM, Waikar SS, Schrauben SJ, Schelling JR, Ganz P, Kimmel PL, Greenberg JH, Deo R, Takakura A, Vasan RS, Bonventre JV, Parikh CR. The distal nephron biomarkers associate with diabetic kidney disease progression. JCI Insight. 2025 Jun 23;10(12):e186836. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.186836. eCollection 2025 Jun 23.
• Natale P, Palmer SC, Navaneethan SD, Craig JC, Strippoli GF. Angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers for preventing the progression of diabetic kidney disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Apr 29;4(4):CD006257. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006257.pub2.
• Huang Y, Fried LF, Kyriakides TC, Johnson GR, Chiu S, Mcdonald L, Zhang JH. Automated safety event monitoring using electronic medical records in a clinical trial setting: Validation study using the VA NEPHRON-D trial. Clin Trials. 2019 Feb;16(1):81-89. doi: 10.1177/1740774518813121. Epub 2018 Nov 16.

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Indications