Renal & Urological Disorders

Unlock Understanding in Renal and Urological Disorders

The kidney’s main function is to filter waste products and excess fluids from the blood so that they can be expelled from the body through the urine. In addition, they are essential for the regulation of osmolality, blood pressure, pH homeostasis, and the secretion of certain hormones. Urological diseases include a wide variety of conditions that affect the kidney, ureter, and bladder, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and benign prostate hyperplasia. Some serious urological diseases can progress to end-stage kidney failure, which is fatal if left untreated by artificial filtering (dialysis) or a kidney transplant. Metabolomics and lipidomics are powerful tools that can be used for the identification of biomarkers of disease progression as well as for identifying potential targets for pharmacological intervention.

Browse Resources

Discuss Your Project$

Browse Resources

Discuss Your Project

Identify Biomarkers and Disease Mechanism

More understanding is needed surrounding the normal and abnormal function of renal and urological tissues at a molecular and cellular level. Renal and urologic diseases can affect people of all ages and can result in significant health care expenditures and substantial disability. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Americans spend nearly $11 billion annually on medical care for urological disorders. Moreover, CKD affects between 8% and 16% of the population worldwide.¹ Early diagnosis of urological diseases by primary care clinicians is important in reducing the burden of disease. The discovery and validation of novel biomarkers of renal and urologic diseases can help support drug development and early disease detection.

Understand Renal & Urological Disorders through Metabolomics and Lipidomics

The Metabolon Global Discovery Panel provides a high-fidelity and reproducible analysis of the current state of a biological sample to help identify biomarkers and reveal changes in key biological pathways. Global metabolomics can be applied to cultured cells, tissues, blood plasma, and serum to discover metabolic signatures of renal and urological disorders. These insights can be translated into actionable biomarkers through follow-on targeted quantitative assays. Furthermore, patients with CKD or kidney failure have altered complex lipid metabolism² thus, accurate identification and quantification of lipid species through the Complex Lipids Targeted Panel are essential for biomarker discovery and biological insights. Metabolon’s unmatched chemical library can identify many classes of metabolites and metabolic pathways. Global metabolomics and lipidomics offer the opportunity to profile thousands of biochemicals in an unbiased fashion to enable the discovery of novel disease mechanisms and biomarkers. Additionally, a closer look at specific pathways and metabolite classes relevant to the kidney can be achieved using Targeted Panels such as the Creatinine Single Analyte Assay or the Indoles/Uremic Toxicity Targeted Panel.

Elucidate novel biomarkers for Renal & Urological Disorders

The economic burden of CKD is substantial,³ so understanding the underlying biology behind disease pathogenesis and identifying biomarkers can help with disease prevention, detection, and assessment of treatment efficacy. Metabolomics and lipidomics are uniquely poised to drive the needed research and development to fuel greater understanding of these conditions and drive diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities. Metabolon’s reference library contains over 5,400 metabolites, and our Complex Lipids Targeted Panel can identify up to 1,100 individual lipid species, providing quantitative lipidomic analysis. Metabolomic and lipidomic profiling are unique and powerful tools that can provide insights into the molecular processes influencing renal and urological diseases. Metabolon’s deep experience in metabolomics and lipidomics can play a vital role in future advancements in the renal and urological field.

See how Metabolon can advance your path to preclinical and clinical insights

Get A Project Quote

Metabolomics Panels for Renal and Urological Disorders

Complex Lipids Targeted Panel

Metabolon has overcome the challenges of lipid profiling to create the only platform able to provide both complete and quantitative lipidomic analysis.

Learn more about Metabolon Target: Complex Lipids Panel

Creatinine Single Analyte Assay

Creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine produced by muscles. Creatinine is removed from the body by the kidneys, which filter it from the blood and release it into the urine. Serum creatinine has been used as biomarker for acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. Urinary creatinine is used to test sample dilution, and biomarker-to-creatinine ratio can be used to correct the fluctuation of urine volume.

Learn more about the Creatinine Single Analyte Assay

Indoles/Uremic Toxicity Targeted Panel

Uremic toxicity is the buildup of toxic analytes that are not able to be adequately filtered by the kidneys due to kidney injury or disease. Indole metabolites of tryptophan, the tyrosine metabolite p-cresol sulfate and 4-ethylphenyl sulfate are a key group of gut microbiota-derived uremic compounds. Their formation is the result of a complex interaction between diet, gut microbiota and host. Increased production of these compounds by the gut microbiota and reduced clearance in kidney disease can lead to toxicity affecting nearly all systems in the body.

Learn more about the Indoles/Uremic Toxicity Targeted Panel

Metal Analysis Targeted Panel

Metabolon’s ICP-MS-based Metal Analysis Targeted Panel provides precise measurements of biologically important metal ions in biological samples. In addition to the well-established problems of toxicity associated with several metals, the vital role these ions play in a variety of biological pathways whether by catalyzing enzymatic reactions or stabilizing protein structures is still becoming clear. Intimately intertwined with the proteome and metabolome, metal ions represent an intrinsic piece vital to the holistic understanding of biological phenomena ranging from development through normal functioning to disease. Without an understanding of the role of these metals, a complete understanding of biological processes is not possible. The Metal Analysis Targeted Panel measures a variety of metals ions ranging from the macro level (ppm) including Na, K, and Ca to the micro level (ppb) including Mo, Cu, and Ni.

Learn more about the Metal Analysis Targeted Panel

“Given the critical role of metabolic reprogramming, it is not surprising that targeting metabolism is now an active area of antifibrotic drug discovery…. We found that IM156 had profound metabolic effects and robust antifibrotic activity in the [murine] lung at plasma exposures that are clinically relevant and were well tolerated in humans.”

WILLETTE ET AL. 2021

Metabolon in Action

View more Client Stories

Metabolomics Identifies Preclinical Biomarker of Acute Renal Injury

Metabolon helped identify a potential biomarker of acute renal injury using metabolomics. This resulted in the successful development of a routine, sensitive test to detect off-target effects of drugs on the kidney in preclinical studies.

Read the Case Study

Understanding Pediatric Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) with Metabolomics and Machine Learning

The untargeted plasma metabolomics data from this population health study represent an exciting opportunity to better understand biochemical differences based on underlying pediatric CKD causes. Identification of such differences may improve our ability to predict disease progression and associated morbidity and may identify potential therapeutic targets. This research also provides new directions for future studies of CKD.

Read the Case Study

Interested in Further Studies?

View more Client Stories

Why Metabolon?

Once you see the full value of metabolomics, the only remaining question is who does it best? While many laboratories have metabolite profiling or analytical chemistry capabilities, comprehensive metabolomics technologies are extremely rare. Accurate, unbiased metabolite identification across the entire metabolome introduces signal-to-noise challenges that very few labs are equipped to handle. Also, translating massive quantities of data into actionable information is slow, if not impossible, for most because proper interpretation takes two things that are in short supply: experience and a comprehensive database.

Only Metabolon has all four core metabolomics capabilities

Coverage

Ability to interrogate thousands of metabolites across diverse biochemical space, revealing new insights and opportunities

Comparability

Ability to integrate the data from different studies into the same dataset, in different geographies, among different patients over time

Competency

Ability to inform on proper study design, generate high‐quality data, derive biological insights, and make actionable recommendations

Capacity

Ability to process hundreds of thousands of samples quickly and cost‐efficiently to service rapidly growing demand

Partner with Metabolon to access:

A library of 5,400+ known metabolites, 2,000 in human plasma, all referenced in the context of biochemical pathways

That’s 5x the metabolites of the closest competitor

Unparalleled depth and breadth of experience analyzing and interpreting metabolomic data to find meaningful results

10,000+ projects with hundreds of clients
3,500+ publications covering 500 diseases, including numerous peer-reviewed journals such as Cell, Nature and Science
Nearly 40 PhDs in data science, molecular biology, and biochemistry

Using our robust platform and visualization tools, our experts are uniquely able to tell you more about your molecule and develop assay panels to help you zero in on the results you need.

Talk with an expert

Request a quote for our services, get more information on sample types and handling procedures, request a letter of support, or submit a question about how metabolomics can advance your research.



Corporate Headquarters

617 Davis Drive, Suite 100
Morrisville, NC 27560



+1 (919) 572-1711

References

1. Chen TK, Knicely DH, Grams ME. Chronic Kidney Disease Diagnosis and Management: A Review. JAMA. 10 01 2019;322(13):1294-1304. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.14745

2. Baek J, He C, Afshinnia F, Michailidis G, Pennathur S. Lipidomic approaches to dissect dysregulated lipid metabolism in kidney disease. Nat Rev Nephrol. 2022;18(1):38-55. doi:10.1038/s41581-021-00488-2

3. Wang V, Vilme H, Maciejewski ML, Boulware LE. The Economic Burden of Chronic Kidney Disease and End-Stage Renal Disease. Semin Nephrol. 2016;36(4):319-330. doi:10.1016/j.semnephrol.2016.05.008