Metabolomics and renal disease

Abstract

Purpose of review This review summarizes recent metabolomics studies of renal disease, outlining some of the limitations of the literature to date. Recent findings The application of metabolomics in nephrology research has expanded from initial analyses of uremia to include both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of earlier stages of kidney disease. Although these studies have nominated several potential markers of incident CKD and CKD progression, lack of overlap in metabolite coverage has limited the ability to synthesize results across groups. Further, direct examination of renal metabolite handling has underscored the substantial impact kidney function has on these potential markers (and many other circulating metabolites). In experimental studies, metabolomics has been used to identify a signature of decreased mitochondrial function in diabetic nephropathy and a preference for aerobic glucose metabolism in PKD; in each case, these studies have outlined novel therapeutic opportunities. Finally, as a complement to the longstanding interest in renal metabolite clearance, the microbiome has been increasingly recognized as the source of many plasma metabolites, including some with potential functional relevance to CKD and its complications. Summary The high-throughput, high-resolution phenotyping enabled by metabolomics technologies has begun to provide insight on renal disease in clinical, physiologic, and experimental contexts.

Clinical and metabolomic risk factors associated with rapid renal function decline in sickle cell disease

“…Recently, urine proteomic analysis has been used to identify biomarkers associated with CKD in SCD . Additionally, recent studies using metabolomic profiling in the general CKD literature have characterized metabolic changes at different stages of CKD and attempted to identify potential biomarkers of CKD progression . However, the approach of plasma metabolomic profiling, which might yield disease‐specific insights into CKD pathogenesis and progression, has not yet been applied to SCDN.…”

Metabolomics of Chronic Kidney Disease Progression: A Case-Control Analysis in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study

“…Metabolomics, or metabolite profiling, refers to the systematic analysis of metabolites (i.e., sugars, amino acids, organic acids, nucleotides, etc) in a biologic specimen [1–3]. Because of long-standing interest in small molecules as potential uremic toxins, initial applications of metabolomics in nephrology research examined plasma or dialysate from individuals with ESRD [4–6].…”

Metabolomics toward personalized medicine

“…Nutritionists and‐dietitians are re‐exploring metabolomics to identify novel ways to treat and prevent nutrition related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and some inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) . Therefore, there is a strong need for a comprehensive metabolomic database that encompasses many physiological health and disease states identified in a large cohort of well‐phenotyped individuals …”

“…15,16 Therefore, there is a strong need for a comprehensive metabolomic database that encompasses many physiological health and disease states identified in a large cohort of well-phenotyped individuals. 17,18 FIGURE 1 Bibliographic search in PubMed containing the keyword metabolomics (as of November 2016). A total of 13670 articles were identified, where the dataset was mined using the search parameter mass spectrometry or NMR, and normalized to total number of published articles in general A combined untargeted metabolomics analysis linked with DNA variants identified by "Whole Exome Sequencing" (WES) in healthy volunteers, revealed a range of complementary molecular and metabolic abnormalities.…”