Currently diagnosis of many diseases is obligated to detection of several disease specific markers referred to as biomarker. European Medical Agency defines biomarkers as measurable characteristics that reflect physiological, pharmacological progression of a disease. Renal diseases including acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, glomerular disease, preeclampsia etc., have a high mortality and morbidity rate and are characterized by the rapid or gradual loss of kidney function resulting into serous clinical implications. The gold standard for diagnosis of renal injury i.e. routine estimation of serum creatinine lack sufficient sensitivity for early detection of injury and are not specific for the site of injury having limited clinical utility. In case of diseases such as acute kidney disease and chronic kidney disease creatinine takes several days to reach the steady state and up to 50 % of the kidney function may be lost before the serum creatinine begins to rise during the kidney injury. Hence, there is an impending need of development of specific biomarker that can detect the renal disorders at the earliest which helps in timely preventive or more effective treatments for management of renal disorders. A number of emerging biomarkers are currently being developed in order to help early diagnose and prevent catastrophic outcomes of various renal disorders in clinical practice. The most promising biomarkers of acute kidney injury (AKI) for clinical use include a plasma panel (NGAL and cystatin C) and a urine panel (NGAL, Il-18 and KIM-1).
The major factors fuelling the need for development of novel renal biomarkers includes increasing prevalence of various kidney disorders, along with growing incidence of other chronic disorders such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension, as these diseases are often associated with the gradual loss of kidney function.