ANALYSIS OF BLOOD TRANSCRIPTOME IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY INFECTION OF UNCERTAIN AETIOLOGY

Author (s) : Dr. S. Poongodi & S. Shenbagavalli

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Abstract :
Chronic kidney disease of uncertain aetiology (CKDu) is an increasing health problem in certain agricultural regions of the tropical world including Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study was to analyse blood transcriptome patterns of CKDu patients in comparison to healthy individuals, and to identify differentially expressed genes as possible biomarkers of CKDu. Briefly, total RNA was isolated from whole blood of Stage 2, 3 and 4 CKDu patients from a CKDu endemic region of Sri Lanka, Girandurukotte, and healthy individuals of a CKDu nonendemic region, Kandy. The RNA was pooled stage-wise and expression patterns were compared to that of pooled RNA of healthy individuals. The RNA was amplified, reverse transcribed and hybridized to Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChip arrays and scanned with an Illumina Bead Array Reader Confocal Scanner. A total of 974, 1034, and 67 genes were differentially expressed (fold change ≥ 2 or ≤ 0.5) in Stages 2, 3 and 4 CKDu respectively. Of these, seven genes were identified that were commonly differentially expressed in the three different stages compared to the healthy group. The genes identified included those involved in hypertensive response (ADM), gap junction channel activity (GJB4) and infectious/immune response (IFIT1, PI3, DEFA1, HBZ, RN7SK). These genes have the potential to be used as diagnostic markers of CKDu as they are differentially regulated in the three studied stages of CKDu and can diagnose disease patients from the healthy individuals. Real time quantitative PCRs are currently being carried out to verify findings of the microarrays.

Keywords : Biomarkers, CKD, CKDu, gene expression analysis, peripheral whole blood, RTqPCR

Conference Date : 30/08/2019

Pages : 268

Paper ID : 19259