Urinary Biomarkers for Chronic Kidney Disease with a Focus on Gene Transcript

OBJECTIVE: In the upcoming era of precision medicine, searching for the early, noninvasive biomarkers has been the cornerstone and major challenge in the management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Urine contains rich biological information which could be the ideal source for noninvasive biomarkers of CKD. This review will discuss the recent advance in urinary biomarker. DATA SOURCES: This review was based on data in articles published in the PubMed databases up to June 20, 2017, with the following keywords: “Chronic kidney disease”, “Biomarker”, and “Urine”. STUDY SELECTION: Original articles and important reviews on urinary biomarker were selected for this review. RESULTS: Urinary biomarker studies of CKD mainly focused on urine sediment, supernatant, and urinary extracellular vesicles. The gene transcript (microRNA [miRNA], messenger RNA [mRNA]) biomarkers have been recently shown with diagnostic potential for CKD reflecting kidney function and histological change. However, challenges regarding technique and data analysis need to be resolved before translation to clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Different fractions of urine contain rich information for biomarker discovery, among which urine (extracellular vesicles) mRNA, miRNA, might represent promising biomarker for CKD.