Proteomics in chronic kidney disease: The issues clinical nephrologists need an answer for

A growing number of patients are recognised to have chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, only a minority will progress to end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis or transplantation. Currently available diagnostic and staging tools frequently fail to identify those at higher risk of progression or death. Furthermore within specific disease entities there are shortcomings in the prediction of the need for therapeutic interventions or the response to different forms of therapy. Kidney and urine proteomic biomarkers are considered as promising diagnostic tools to predict CKD progression early in diabetic nephropathy, facilitating timely and selective intervention that may reduce the related health-care expenditures. However, independent groups have not validated these findings and the technique is not currently available for routine clinical care. Furthermore, there are gaps in our understanding of predictors of progression or need for therapy in non-diabetic CKD. Presumably, a combination of tissue and urine biomarkers will be more informative than individual markers. This review identifies clinical questions in need of an answer, summarises current information on proteomic biomarkers and CKD, and describes the European Kidney and Urine Proteomics initiative that has been launched to carry out a clinical study aimed at identifying urinary proteomic biomarkers distinguishing between fast and slow progressors among patients with biopsy-proven primary glomerulopathies.