This invention relates to a pharmaceutical preparation for renal diseases, and more specifically, relates to a pharmaceutical preparation containing a sulfated polysaccharide. Further, the invention relates to a method for the prophylaxis or treatment of a renal disease which comprises administering a sulfated polysaccharide to a patient suffering from the renal disease.
Renal diseases are, usually, such diseases that renal functions are lowered progressively, resulting in renal failure. A certain extent of therapeutic efficacy by the use of a steroid agent or an immunosuppressant is recognized on renal diseases based on certain causes, but renal diseases not fit for treatment by steroid agents are hard to cure and it is said that such renal diseases develop to renal failure in the course of time. In this connection, it is the present state of things that even when a renal disease is fit for treatment by a steroid agent, its use is restricted because it causes side effects in a high frequency, and thus it is mainly treated by dietetics.
Further, there is a report wherein a certain renal disease, for example an autoimmune renal disease is grasped from the viewpoint of inflammation, attention is payed to the action of an adhesive molecule, and it is attempted to suppress the inflammation by an antibody against ICAM-1 (J. Immunol. 150, 1074-1083, 1993).
On the other hand, as publications wherein the application of sulfated polysaccharides used in the invention to pharmaceuticals is described, there is Japanese Patent Publication No. 7577/1990. It is disclosed in this official gazette that sulfates of various saccharides including salfated hyaluronic acid can be used for the treatment of human immunodeficiency viral diseases. However, the official gazette does not describe nor suggest that not only these polysaccharides can be used as anti-inflammatory agents, but they can be used as agents for the treatment of renal diseases.
As is seen from the foregoing, it is the present state of things that it can be said that pharmaceuticals which can be used safely for the prophylaxis or treatment of renal diseases have not yet been provided. Thus, the object of the invention lies in providing a pharmaceutical preparation which can be used more safely for the prophylaxis or treatment of renal diseases, and moreover has significantly excellent efficacy.
In recent years, the importance of the adhesive molecule in inflammatory reactions has gradually understood due to the rapid progress of researches into adhesive molecules. In view of the roles of adhesive molecules, for example, L-selectin molecules in inflammation, it is known that L-selectin is expressed in various leukocytes including neutrophiles, T and B lymphocytes and monocytes, and plays a role to make those mononuclear cells flowing with rapid force in the blood gently roll on the hemal endothelial cells (von Andrian et al., Proc. Natl. Acd. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 7538-7542, 1991). It is said that then, the mononuclear cells bind tight to the endothelial cells, and infiltrate into tissues through the endothelial interstitium.
As to the renal tissue, it is reported that the ureteral obstruction of a laboratory model rat can be an initial model for the analysis of the mechanism of tissue infiltration by mononuclear cells and for some renal diseases (for example, Schreiner, G. F. et al., Kidney Int. 34, 487-493, 1988, and Heptinstall R. H. in Pathology of the Kidney (edited by Heptinstall), 1489-1562, 1991).