Abstract

NOVEL BIOMARKERS IN THE EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY AND RENAL IMPAIRMENT

Kavitha CH.N.*, Pratyusha R., Lakshmi Iswarya T. and Sai Nitish N.

ABSTRACT

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a global public health concern, impacting nearly 13.3 million patients and resulting in three million deaths per year. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has increased by 135% since 1990, representing the pathology with the fastest growth rate worldwide. Despite its great impact, kidney disease has remained mostly asymptomatic for many years. Hence, there is a pressing need to study biomarkers for the assessment of nephrotoxicity in order to develop new and safer drugs. In this review, we address new technologies that may be used to identify earlier biomarkers and pathways involved in nephrotoxicity. The standard metrics used to define and monitor the progression of AKI, such as serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels, are insensitive, nonspecific, and change significantly only after significant kidney injury and then with a substantial time delay. Studies to establish effective therapies for AKI will be greatly facilitated by two factors: (a) development of sensitive, specific, and reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis/prognosis of AKI in preclinical and clinical studies, and (b) development and validation of high-throughput innovative technologies that allow rapid multiplexed detection of multiple markers at the bedside. The discovery and development of novel biomarkers that can diagnose kidney damage earlier and more accurately are needed for effective prevention of drug-induced nephrotoxicity. Although some of them fail to confer specificity and sensitivity, several promising candidates of biomarkers were recently proved for assessment of nephrotoxicity. Further, there is an increasing demand for the development of safer and effective nephroprotective agents with minimal side effects since certain number of drugs produce nephrotoxicity or renal impairment as one of their adverse drug reactions. The current review on various biomarkers to detect nephrotoxicity and kidney failure may assist the active researchers to explore potent and effective nephroprotective agents.

Keywords: .