title: MicroRNA biomarkers in clinical renal disease: from diabetic nephropathy renal transplantation and beyond.
abstract: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a common health problem affecting 1 in 12 Americans. It is associated with elevated risks of mortality, cardiovascular disease, and high costs for the treatment of renal failure with dialysis or transplantation. Advances in CKD care are impeded by the lack of biomarkers for early diagnosis, assessment of the extent of tissue injury, estimation of disease progression, and evaluation of response to therapy. Such biomarkers should improve the performance of existing measures of renal functional impairment (estimated glomerular filtration rate, eGFR) or kidney damage (proteinuria). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) a class of small, non-coding RNAs that act as post-transcriptional repressors are gaining momentum as biomarkers in a number of disease areas. In this review, we examine the potential utility of miRNAs as promising biomarkers for renal disease. We explore the performance of miRNAs as biomarkers in two clinically important forms of CKD, diabetes and the nephropathy developing in kidney transplant recipients. Finally, we highlight the pitfalls and opportunities of miRNAs and provide a broad perspective for the future clinical development of miRNAs as biomarkers in CKD beyond the current gold standards of eGFR and albuminuria.
authors.affiliation: Drug Safety, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, Andover, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Rounak
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nassirpour
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Renal Disease and Hypertension, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Dominic
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raj
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, MSC 04-2785 Albuquerque, NM, 87106, USA. Electronic address: cargyropoulos@salud.unm.edu.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Argyropoulos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Biomarker; Chronic kidney disease; Diabetic nephropathy; MicroRNAs; Proteinuria; Renal transplantation