UNAIR NEWS – Hemodialysis membranes are membranes used in hemodialysis therapy and developed as an innovation for blood cleaning in patients with kidney failure, but the membranes cannot remove all types of uremic toxins in the blood.
Water Soluble Uremic Toxins (WSUT) have been proven to be removable from the blood of kidney failure patients using low flux hemodialysis membrane therapy. Middle-Molecule Uremic Toxins (MMUT) have also been proven to be removable by hemodialysis membranes using high flux systems.
Protein-Bounded Uremic Toxins (PBUT) are the type of uremic toxin that is very difficult to remove using hemodialysis membrane therapy. According to researchers, this type of toxin can be removed using hemoperfusion.
The use of high flux systems is not as easy as low flux systems. The patient’s health condition is crucial in determining the method used. Moreover, hemoperfusion has many drawbacks when applied to kidney failure patients, such as the high amount of necessary protein in the blood being adsorbed during the procedure.
The development of hemodialysis membrane that can remove WSUT, MMUT, and PBUT through the Mixed Matrix Membrane Adsorber (MMMA) innovation has been initiated by Yanuardi Raharjo SSi MSc PhD and his research team, Membrane Science and Technology Research Group (MSTRG) from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga (FST UNAIR).
UNAIR Team research result
On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, Yanuardi stated to UNAIR NEWS that his research team consists of Prof. Dr. Djoko Santoso PhD SpPDK-GHFINASIM, Moch Zakki Fahmi PhD, Siti Wafiroh MSi, and several lecturers from the Department of Chemistry FST UNAIR, along with a team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia: Prof. Dr. Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Ismail and Prof. Dr. Ts Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman.
Yanuardi explained that the developed MMMA combines synthetic polymer polyethersulfone with modified zeolite adsorbents using imprinting techniques to increase adsorbent selectivity. The developed MMMA, he continued, can remove WSUT, MMUT, and PBUT by up to 50% on a lab scale.
Furthermore, he continued, for the membrane characteristics testing, membrane performance and in vitro tests have been tested with excellent results. UNAIR’s Vice Rector for Research, Innovation, and Community Development (RICD), Prof. Dr. Ni Nyoman Tri Puspaningsih, also supported this research to be developed in vivo testing so the membrane product would give more benefit in improving kidney failure patients’ quality of life in Indonesia in particular.
“This MMMA innovation has resulted in several publications in reputable international journals and is indexed in SCOPUS (Q3 to Q1), and its patent is registered at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia,” said Yanuardi.
“Until now, the hemodialysis membranes used by patients in Indonesia are still imported. They have not been produced in Indonesia yet, so we intend to initiate the first production of hemodialysis membranes,” said the FST UNAIR lecturer.
Researchers’ goal
Representing the MSTRG research team of FST UNAIR, Yanuardi expressed his goal for the continuity of this research in the future. He and his team hoped that the results of their research will benefit society, especially kidney failure patients and blood purification applications for various types of diseases in general. He also hopes his research will be useful for membraneologists, medical internists, and nephrologists.
“With these membranes, hopefully, uremic toxins from patients can be removed significantly, thus improving the kidney failure patients’ quality of life,” concluded Yanuardi.
Author: Dewi Yugi Arti
Editor: Feri Fenoria
