Systems Biology and Kidney Disease

Abstract

The kidney is a complex organ responsible for maintaining multiple aspects of homeostasis in the human body. The combination of distinct, yet interrelated, molecular functions across different cell types make the delineation of factors associated with loss or decline in kidney function challenging. Consequently, there has been a paucity of new diagnostic markers and treatment options becoming available to clinicians and patients in managing kidney diseases. A systems biology approach to understanding the kidney leverages recent advances in computational technology and methods to integrate diverse sets of data. It has the potential to unravel the interplay of multiple genes, proteins, and molecular mechanisms that drive key functions in kidney health and disease. The emergence of large, detailed, multilevel biologic and clinical data from national databases, cohort studies, and trials now provide the critical pieces needed for meaningful application of systems biology approaches in nephrology. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the current state in the evolution of the field. Recent successes of systems biology to identify targeted therapies linked to mechanistic biomarkers in the kidney are described to emphasize the relevance to clinical care and the outlook for improving outcomes for patients with kidney diseases.

Keywords: Genomics; Kidney Genomics Series; bioinformatics; biomarkers; cohort studies; gene expression; homeostasis; human body; humans; kidney; kidney biopsy; kidney disease; kidney diseases; nephrology; precision medicine; proteomics; systems biology; transcriptional profiling; urinary tract physiological phenomena.

Figure 1.

Integrative systems approach to address challenges in kidney disease. A systems biology approach to the kidney adds to the reductionist approach by leveraging recent advances in computational technology and methods to integrate diverse sets of data.

Figure 2.

The systems biology process toward targeted treatments in nephrology. The emergence of large, detailed, multilevel biological and clinical data from national databases, cohorts studies and trials provide critical pieces needed to improve the pathway to targeted treatments in nephrology.