IntroductionCKD273 is a urinary biomarker, which in advanced chronic kidney disease predicts further deterioration. We investigated whether CKD273 can also predict a decline of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) to <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2.MethodsIn analyses of 2087 individuals from 6 cohorts (46.4% women; 73.5% with diabetes; mean age, 46.1 years; eGFR ≥ 60 ml/min per 1.73 m2, 100%; urinary albumin excretion rate [UAE] ≥20 μg/min, 6.2%), we accounted for cohort, sex, age, mean arterial pressure, diabetes, and eGFR at baseline and expressed associations per 1-SD increment in urinary biomarkers.ResultsOver 5 (median) follow-up visits, eGFR decreased more with higher baseline CKD273 than UAE (1.64 vs. 0.82 ml/min per 1.73 m2; P < 0.0001). Over 4.6 years (median), 390 participants experienced a first renal endpoint (eGFR decrease by ≥10 to <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2), and 172 experienced an endpoint sustained over follow-up. The risk of a first and sustained renal endpoint increased with UAE (hazard ratio ≥ 1.23; P ≤ 0.043) and CKD273 (≥ 1.20; P ≤ 0.031). UAE (≥20 μg/min) and CKD273 (≥0.154) thresholds yielded sensitivities of 30% and 33% and specificities of 82% and 83% (P ≤ 0.0001 for difference between UAE and CKD273 in proportion of correctly classified individuals). As continuous markers, CKD273 (P = 0.039), but not UAE (P = 0.065), increased the integrated discrimination improvement, while both UAE and CKD273 improved the net reclassification index (P ≤ 0.0003), except for UAE per threshold (P = 0.086).DiscussionIn conclusion, while accounting for baseline eGFR, albuminuria, and covariables, CKD273 adds to the prediction of stage 3 chronic kidney disease, at which point intervention remains an achievable therapeutic target.

The urinary proteome refines the diagnosis of existing or progressing renal dysfunction and predicts cardiovascular complications.

Background: Identifying the mechanistic pathways potentially associated with incident HF may provide a basis for novel preventive strategies. Methods and Results:To identify proteomic biomarkers and the potential underlying mechanistic pathways that may be associated with incident HF defined as first hospitalization for HF, a nestedmatched case-control design was used with cases (incident HF) and controls (without HF) selected from 3 cohorts (>20,000 individuals). Controls were matched on cohort, follow-up time, age, and sex.Two independent sample sets (a "discovery" set, with 286 cases and 591 controls and a "replication" set with 276 cases and 280 controls) were used to discover and replicate the findings. 252 circulating proteins in the plasma were studied. Adjusting for the matching variables age, sex, and follow-up time (and correcting for multiplicity of tests), 89 proteins were found to be associated with incident HF in the discovery phase, of which 38 were also associated with incident HF in the replication phase.These 38 proteins pointed to 4 main network clusters underlying incident HF: 1) inflammation and apoptosis, indicated by the expression of the TNF-family members; 2) extracellular matrix remodelling, angiogenesis and growth, indicated by the expression of proteins associated with collagen metabolism, endothelial function and vascular homeostasis; 3) blood pressure regulation, indicated by the expression of natriuretic peptides and proteins related to the renin angiotensin aldosterone system; and 4) metabolism, associated with cholesterol and atherosclerosis.Conclusion: Clusters of biomarkers associated with mechanistic pathways leading to HF were identified linking inflammation, apoptosis, vascular function, matrix remodelling, blood pressure control and metabolism. These findings provide important insight on the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to HF.

Background: Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a promising candidate biomarker for detection, monitoring and survival prediction of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its prognostic significance for patients with CRC remains controversial. To derive a precise estimation of the prognostic significance of cfDNA, a meta-analysis was performed.Methods: We made a systematic search in data base of the Science Citation Index Embase and Pubmed for studies reporting prognostic data of cfDNA in CRC patients. The data of cfDNA on recurrences-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were extracted and measured in hazard rates (HRs) and 95% confident intervals (CIs). Subgroup analyses were carried out as well. Finally, the meta-analysis is accompanied with nine studies including 19 subunits.Results: The pooled HRs with 95% CIs revealed strong associations between cfDNA and RFS (HR [95%CI]=2.78[2.08-3.72], I2=32.23%, n=7) along with OS (HR [95%CI]=3.03[2.51-3.66], I2=29.24%, n=12) in patients with CRC. Entire subgroup analyses indicated strong prognostic value of cfDNA irrespective tumor stage, study size, tumor markers, detection methods and marker origin.Conclusions: All the results exhibits that appearance of cfDNA in blood is an indicator for adverse RFS and OS in CRC patients.

Objective(s)-To apply a novel proteomic method to discover potential pathogenic factors and biomarkers of preeclampsia.Study design-Sera from five patients complicated with preeclampsia and five healthy pregnant controls were separately pooled. Each pool was treated with peptide ligand library beads (PLLBs) to remove high abundance proteins by affinity and thus enrich low abundance proteins. The proteins from the eluate were analyzed by a combination of 1D-Gel-LC-MS/MS. Protein expression levels were quantified using spectral counts and the extracted ion current.Results-1172 unique proteins in preeclampsia and 1149 in healthy controls were identified in the present study. 51 proteins were differentially expressed between preeclampsia and healthy pregnant women including chorionic somatommammptropin hormone (CSH) and fibulin-1. 31 proteins identified were up-regulated and 20 were down-regulated.Conclusions-The results demonstrate that peptide ligand library combining with 1D gel-LC-MS/MS analysis is an efficient method to identify differentially expressed proteins in sera and two biological processes of complement and coagulation activations and lipid metabolism were involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.