Candidate Biomarkers for Sepsis-Associated Acute Kidney Injury Mechanistic Studies

Published May 2022 | Shock

Sepsis and sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SAAKI) are common complications in hospitalized and critically ill patients, which increase the risk of developing multiple chronic diseases and often lead to death. Currently, doctors use a medical model published by Stanski et al. that predicts if a child will develop severe and persistent SA-AKI at day three of hospital admission using a sepsis biomarker panel generated by Wong et al.

Recently a team led by James Odum, MD, MEd, a former fellow at Cincinnati Children’s now at Children’s of Alabama, developed a mouse model to explore the biological mechanisms behind Stanski’s model. They found that mice with a combination of two biomarkers, keratinocyte-derived chemokine (KC) and C-C chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3), predicted SA-AKI development in the mice after one day. This significant improvement over the current three-day prediction model can give doctors more time to anticipate and treat infections.

Now researchers are working to determine where these biomarkers are made within the kidney. They also are testing whether neutralizing KC with antibodies decreases SA-AKI rates in mice.

This initial study was presented by Odum at the 2021 Annual Conference on Shock (Virtual), where he was a New Investigator Award Finalist. He also presented this data at the 2022 AKI & CRRT Conference in San Diego.

Odum wanted to make sure that he gave credit where it was due. He said, “The principal investigator for this work is the late Dr. Hector Wong, and the success of this research program is a testimony to his ability to develop young physician-scientists and form an innovative, collaborative team.”