Urinary Proteomics and Drug Discovery in Chronic Kidney Disease: A New Perspective

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is becoming a worldwide public health problem. The identification of a specific set of early biomarkers for CKD is extremely relevant to progress in disease knowledge, improving diagnosis, treatment, or development, and monitoring efficacy of new drugs. As kidney fibrosis can be considered the common pathological way to end stage renal failure, independent of the initial renal insult, these biomarkers are therefore biomarkers of early tubulo-interstitial fibrosis. The availability of a specific set of biomarkers for CKD is the mandatory condition to create new dedicated drugs and validate them in clinics without waiting years for a functional response in patients. We suggest here specific cohorts of patients where this early signature of fibrosis may be simpler to be identified.