Assessing the health of transplanted kidneys

A novel non-invasive diagnostic approach to assess kidney transplant health, through targeted measurement of biomarkers of kidney injury and immune response in kidney transplant recipients at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Kidney transplantation is the best therapeutic option for most patients with chronic kidney disease. Compared with dialysis, it is associated with improved rates of survival and quality of life, and lower use of health care resources. Despite medication to optimise outcomes, around 20–30% of patients experience overall kidney transplant failure within the first 5 years and just 55% of transplanted kidneys survive for 10 years. Monitoring kidney transplant patients is critical, but current options to monitor rejection are limited.

Dr Andrew Lewington was awarded £90,000 by Leeds Hospitals Charity to develop an entirely novel diagnostic approach to assess kidney transplant health. Andrew and his team will perform donor-derived cell free DNA (cfDNA) monitoring in conjunction with cytokine profiling as a way of detecting ongoing graft damage earlier than current methods, and then categorising the type of damage (inflammatory/toxic or physical) according to its associated cytokine profile so that appropriate treatment can be provided. The aim of the study is to significantly improve the standard of care approach to measuring kidney transplant health and, by doing so, reduce the rate of kidney transplant failure.