"Nature Reviews Nephrology" published a review: ddcfDNA can be used to detect kidney transplant damage

Recently, the authoritative international medical journal Nature Reviews Nephrology" published a review, focusing on the analysis of the transplant liquid biopsy marker-ddcfDNA. It is proposed that continuous clinical ddcfDNA monitoring is an effective means of health management of transplanted kidneys and can avoid premature loss of transplanted kidneys.

The review mentioned that in kidney transplantation, finding non-invasive biomarkers that are more sensitive and specific than serum creatinine for early and accurate detection of acute and chronic rejection is crucial for the long-term survival of the transplanted kidney. Current donor-derived cell-free DNA (ddcfDNA) has shown great potential as a candidate biomarker for comprehensive monitoring of kidney transplant injury. ddcfDNA’s detection technology platform includes second-generation gene sequencing, digital PCR and fluorescence quantitative PCR. Current data shows that dd-cfDNA has good diagnostic performance in detecting rejection, especially its low false negative rate, which can avoid clinically unnecessary needle biopsies. Before traditional clinical diagnosis detects kidney transplant injury, The level of dd-cfDNA has begun to increase. In addition, due to the short half-life of cfDNA, dd-cfDNA levels will rapidly decrease to a stable level after successful rejection treatment. dd-cfDNA can detect damage to the graft caused by immune activation due to insufficient immunosuppression, so ddcfDNA testing can help guide the dosage of immunosuppressive agents. Background abundance of dd-cfDNA may be affected by changes in recipient cfDNA (e.g. conditions such as infection or exercise), but using absolute values ​​of dd-cfDNA can resolve this issue. Therefore, continuous dd-cfDNA monitoring facilitates cost-effective personalized clinical management of kidney transplant patients to reduce premature graft loss.