Novel Proteins for Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI)
JHU Ref #: C17069
Value Proposition
- Invention provides compositions and methods useful for the diagnosis and treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI)
- Demonstrates the feasibility of using a multiomics approach to discover novel, noninvasive markers of AKI that are associated with adverse clinical outcomes.
Unmet Need
There is a strong need for the identification of biomarkers and other diagnostic tools as a means to refine risk assessment and AKI diagnosis, ultimately improving therapeutic targets. AKI occurs in approximately 10-15% of patients admitted to hospital, while its incidence in intensive care has been reported in more than 50% of patients. AKI is a serious complication in critically ill patients, associated with increased morbidity and mortality, increased hospitalization time and care cost, and long-term development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Present diagnostic measures for AKI have significant limitations and revolve around changes in serum creatinine (SCr), urine output, and requirement for kidney replacement therapy (KRT). However, change in SCr or urine output are not sensitive enough to detect early injury. In addition, SCr may increase in various clinical scenarios that require different management strategies, making the diagnosis and treatment challenging.
Technology Description
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified eight protein biomarkers that can be measured in peripheral blood and reflect the severity of injury in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). It is unique because it integrates tissue transcriptomics and proteomics technologies to identify biomarkers of AKI. Because of the comprehensiveness in assessing gene expression and protein synthesis from these two technologies, this invention is able to identify multiple novel protein biomarkers of AKI at a large scale. The researchers have confirmed these proteins in the ASSESS-AKI cohort and NAKiD cohort using OLink technologies- completing the validation studies.
Stage of Development
- in vitro studies completed
Data Availability
Data available upon request.
Published PCT application
Wen Y, Su E, Xu L, Menez S, Moledina DG, Obeid W, Palevsky PM, Mansour SG, Devarajan P, Cantley LG, Cahan P, Parikh CR; Kidney Precision Medicine Project; Translational Investigation of Biomarker Endpoint of Acute Kidney Injury. Analysis of the human kidney transcriptome and plasma proteome identifies markers of proximal tubule maladaptation to injury. Sci Transl Med. 2023 Dec 13;15(726):eade7287. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.ade7287. Epub 2023 Dec 13. PMID: 38091407; PMCID: PMC11405121.
