Metabolomics in Chronic Kidney Diseases: Here to Stay

Mihaela-Roxana Pătruică,Adrian Vlad,Florica Gădălean,Danina M Muntean,Lavinia Balint,Carmen Socaciu,Adrian Sturza,Silvia Ienciu,Ligia Petrica,Dragos Cătălin Jianu

doi:10.35995/tmj20200208

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects around 13% of the adult population, has become a considerable concern worldwide, and is characterized by inadequate renal clearance, resulting in the accumulation of various potential toxic compounds. Metabolomics, one of the many important parts of “omics” science, refers to the systematic study of metabolites in a living system and their changes because of pathophysiological and genetic modifications. The use of metabolomics in the nephrology field of research has offered a better understanding of the pathomechanisms of CKD. The most recent technologies used for the evaluation of plasma and urinary metabolites are nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectroscopy (MS). A major research direction of modern medicine is to develop new therapies and new biomarkers for the early diagnosis of patients with CKD. Experimental studies of renal metabolism unequivocally demonstrated that kidney function has a huge impact on several circulating metabolites. Moreover, metabolites themselves appear to have an essential role in CKD pathogenesis/complications, being recognized as potential biomarkers with prognostic, diagnostic, and therapeutic value for the disease. The present paper provides a bird’s eye view on metabolomics and a summary of the most recent studies of metabolomics carried out in patients with CKD.

Highlights

Over the past decade, a series of new technologies have been developed to assess and characterize thousands of macromolecules and small molecules within tissue or body fluids
The workhorses used in metabolite profiling are nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS), the last using gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) [11]
Metabolomics study in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is a promising field that may provide an innovative approach to an early diagnosis, disease progression, and treatment of renal diseases

Summary

Introduction

A series of new technologies have been developed to assess and characterize thousands of macromolecules and small molecules within tissue or body fluids. The main goals of omics-based measurements are to develop new techniques allowing for an early diagnosis and/or a prognostic value of a specific disease, concomitantly with identifying novel metabolic/signal transduction pathways as therapeutic targets [1]. This summary addresses the role of metabolomics in the pathophysiology of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Metabolomics is the reflection of phenotype and highly responsive to environmental and biological regulatory mechanisms, with a special approach to characterize the phenotype Modern analytical platforms, such as mass spectrometry, chromatographic systems, and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy), can produce simultaneously high content data and quantitative data on many metabolites. Among other parts of “omics”, metabolomics is an important source for discovering new biomarkers [7]

A Historical Perspective

Findings

Conclusions