Review
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World J Transplant. Sep 18, 2020; 10(9): 230-255
Published online Sep 18, 2020. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v10.i9.230
Role of novel biomarkers in kidney transplantation
Kurtis J Swanson, Fahad Aziz, Neetika Garg, Maha Mohamed, Didier Mandelbrot, Arjang Djamali, Sandesh Parajuli
Kurtis J Swanson, Fahad Aziz, Neetika Garg, Maha Mohamed, Didier Mandelbrot, Arjang Djamali, Sandesh Parajuli, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705, United States
Arjang Djamali, Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705, United States
Author contributions: Swanson K and Parajuli S had an original idea, designed the study, reviewed literature, prepared the manuscript; Aziz F, Garg N, Mohamed M, and Mandelbrot DA, and Djamali A edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sandesh Parajuli, MBBS, MD, Assistant Professor, Doctor, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 4175 UW Medical Foundation Centennial Building, 1685 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States. sparajuli@medicine.wisc.edu
Received: May 17, 2020
Peer-review started: May 17, 2020
First decision: June 3, 2020
Revised: July 21, 2020
Accepted: August 25, 2020
Article in press: August 25, 2020
Published online: September 18, 2020
Processing time: 121 Days and 23.5 Hours
Abstract

Clinical application of biomarkers is an integral component of transplant care. Clinicians and scientists alike are in search of better biomarkers than the current serologic (serum creatinine, donor-specific antibodies), urine-derived (urinalysis, urine protein), and histologic ones we now use. The science behind recent biomarker discovery spans across multiple molecular biologic disciplines, including transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Innovative methodology and integration of basic and clinical approaches have allowed researchers to unearth molecular phenomena preceding clinical disease. Biomarkers can be classified in several ways. In this review, we have classified them via their origin and outcome: Primarily immunologic, i.e., representative of immune regulation and dysfunction and non-immunologic, pertaining to delayed graft function, cardiovascular events/mortality, infection, malignancy, post-transplant diabetes, graft, and patient survival. Novel biomarker uses to guide the diagnosis and management of transplant-related outcomes is a promising area of research. However, the use of biomarkers to predict outcomes after kidney transplantation is not well studied. In this review, we summarize the recent studies illustrating biomarker use and transplant outcomes.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Kidney Transplantation; Rejection; Infection; Mortality; Graft survival

Core Tip: Novel biomarkers are an emerging field within kidney transplantation, allowing innovative diagnostic and prognostic adjuncts to current standards of care. This review article aims to summarize the most recent literature describing novel biomarker use in kidney transplantation.