Professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, School of Medicine

NextGen Focus Area: Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders

Alejandro Chade utilizes translational swine models of chronic renovascular disease (RVD), hypertension, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and early-stage cardiac failure that have been developed and characterized throughout his research career. His unique physiological imaging techniques use multidetector computerized tomography to noninvasively measure renal regional volume, total renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate, tubular dynamics and endothelial function; echocardiography to investigate the impact on cardiac function and structure; and high-resolution microcomputed tomography to study the 3D architecture of the renal and cardiac microcirculation in situ. These integrated techniques allow Dr. Chade to serially follow the time course of the deterioration of the renal and cardiac function with previously unavailable accuracy. Current efforts in his laboratory also are devoted to the discovery and development of novel drug-delivery-based therapeutic strategies to protect renal and cardiac microcirculation in a targeted fashion, offset inflammation at a molecular level and recover renal and cardiac function in RVD and CKD in a manner that potentially could be applied to humans. Understanding the mechanisms of disease, identifying markers and using targeted interventions could have important ramifications for pinpointing those patients who will benefit from treatments for these diseases. 

Precision Health Impact:

• Elucidating the mechanisms of renal and cardiac injury in chronic kidney disease. 
• Elucidation of novel mechanisms of cross-talk between the diseased kidneys and the heart in the development of cardiac failure. 
• Identification of new targets in the kidneys and in the heart to guide the development of novel molecularly targeted therapies. 

Publications:

• Eirin A, Chade AR. Cardiac epigenetic changes in VEGF signaling genes associate with myocardial microvascular rarefaction in experimental chronic kidney disease. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2023 Jan 1;324(1):H14–25. 
• Chade AR, Eirin A. Cardiac micro-RNA and transcriptomic profile of a novel swine model of chronic kidney disease and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2022 Oct 1;323(4):H659–69. 
• Chade AR, Engel JE, Hall ME, Eirin A, Bidwell GL. Intrarenal modulation of NF-κB activity attenuates cardiac injury in a swine model of CKD: a renal-cardio axis. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2021 Oct 1;321(4):F411–23. 
• Chade AR, Bidwell GL. Novel Drug Delivery Technologies and Targets for Renal Disease. Hypertension. 2022 Sep;79(9):1937–48. 
• Engel JE, Williams E, Williams ML, Bidwell GL, Chade AR. Targeted VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) Therapy Induces Long-Term Renal Recovery in Chronic Kidney Disease via Macrophage Polarization. Hypertension. 2019 Nov;74(5):1113–23. 

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Email: alejandro.chade@missouri.edu
Department website: https://medicine.missouri.edu/faculty/alejandro-r-chade-md