Tenapor and Sodium Intake - 1218 Words

The average American consumes more than double the daily recommendation of sodium. These levels are above the upper limit that is considered to have no adverse effects on our bodies. The CDC lists heart disease as the most common cause of death for Americans, as well as kidney disease at number nine on the top ten causes of death. These are conditions that can be exacerbated by high sodium levels. Not only that, but high blood pressure affects nearly 1/3 of Americans and chronic kidney disease effects about 10% of the population. These are conditions in which reduced sodium in take could be very therapeutic. Especially considering that these very common medical conditions cost many billions of dollars a year to treat. Tenapanor has been developed to help meet the needs of those who need to reduce their sodium intake. Tenapanor acts on the twelve transmembrane protein channel known as the sodium hydrogen exchanger 3 (NHE3) which work how the name would suggest. By binding to this channel tenapanor blocks the sodium from being absorbed at the intestinal level which leads to it traveling straight through the body instead of being filtered by the kidneys (Zachos et al., 2005). NHE3 channels are highly expressed on the apical regions of enterocytes, whereas related the related sodium hydrogen exchanger 2 (NHE2) channels are more heavily expressed on the apical side (Barbry and Hofman, 1997). This gives tenapanor a unique ability to regulate sodium levels at the point where we