Valproic Acid (VPA) for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) in Trauma Patients

Summary

The purpose of this study is to find out if a drug called valproic acid (VPA) will protect organs (such as the kidneys) from damage when a person is injured and loses a large amount of blood. The organs may not get enough blood or oxygen when a patient loses a lot of blood. After the patient receives fluids such as blood, plasma, or saline and the bleeding is stopped, blood and oxygen return to the organs. This process called ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) is known to cause injury to organs such as the kidneys and heart. VPA is an approved drug for treating conditions like seizures and migraines for many years. However, it is not approved for use at the higher dose that will be used in this study or for protecting organs from I/R injury. This study will enroll trauma patients and randomly assign them to receive either VPA diluted in salt water or salt water without VPA (placebo) and then follow the patients and compare their organ function and overall outcome. This study is masked meaning that the patients, doctors, and nurses will not know which patient received which treatment. The study treatment will be given in addition to the care that trauma patients normally receive to treat their injuries. The researchers doing this study believe that VPA will lessen organ injury caused by I/R, meaning that patients who receive VPA will experience less kidney injury when compared to patients who receive the placebo.

Timeline

Start

2022-01

Primary completion

2023-06

Completion

2023-06

Publications

• Background Bihorac A, Delano MJ, Schold JD, Lopez MC, Nathens AB, Maier RV, Layon AJ, Baker HV, Moldawer LL. Incidence, clinical predictors, genomics, and outcome of acute kidney injury among trauma patients. Ann Surg. 2010 Jul;252(1):158-65. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e3181deb6bc.
• Background Chateauvieux S, Morceau F, Dicato M, Diederich M. Molecular and therapeutic potential and toxicity of valproic acid. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2010;2010:479364. doi: 10.1155/2010/479364. Epub 2010 Jul 29.
• Background Costantini TW, Fraga G, Fortlage D, Wynn S, Fraga A, Lee J, Doucet J, Bansal V, Coimbra R. Redefining renal dysfunction in trauma: implementation of the Acute Kidney Injury Network staging system. J Trauma. 2009 Aug;67(2):283-7; discussion 287-8. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3181a51a51.
• Background Georgoff PE, Nikolian VC, Bonham T, Pai MP, Tafatia C, Halaweish I, To K, Watcharotone K, Parameswaran A, Luo R, Sun D, Alam HB. Safety and Tolerability of Intravenous Valproic Acid in Healthy Subjects: A Phase I Dose-Escalation Trial. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2018 Feb;57(2):209-219. doi: 10.1007/s40262-017-0553-1.
• Background Heegard KD, Stewart IJ, Cap AP, Sosnov JA, Kwan HK, Glass KR, Morrow BD, Latack W, Henderson AT, Saenz KK, Siew ED, Ikizler TA, Chung KK. Early acute kidney injury in military casualties. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2015 May;78(5):988-93. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000000607.
• Background Li Y, Alam HB. Creating a pro-survival and anti-inflammatory phenotype by modulation of acetylation in models of hemorrhagic and septic shock. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2012;710:107-33. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-5638-5_11.
• Background Wu MY, Yiang GT, Liao WT, Tsai AP, Cheng YL, Cheng PW, Li CY, Li CJ. Current Mechanistic Concepts in Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury. Cell Physiol Biochem. 2018;46(4):1650-1667. doi: 10.1159/000489241. Epub 2018 Apr 20.
• Background Zheng Q, Liu W, Liu Z, Zhao H, Han X, Zhao M. Valproic acid protects septic mice from renal injury by reducing the inflammatory response. J Surg Res. 2014 Nov;192(1):163-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2014.05.030. Epub 2014 May 20.

Drugs

Indications