Biotechnology Advances in the development of key therapies for kidney diseases

The kidneys are two fist-sized organs located just below the rib cage. Their functions include removing waste and excess fluid from the body, eliminating acid produced by cells, and maintaining a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals—such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium—in the blood.

It is estimated that chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects approximately 850 million people worldwide. If left undetected and untreated, CKD can progress to kidney failure, causing severe complications and premature death. By 2040, CKD is projected to become the fifth leading cause of years of life lost, underscoring the urgent need for global strategies to combat this disease.

For this reason, this year’s main World Kidney Day campaign, celebrated on March 13, carries the slogan: “Are Your Kidneys OK? Detect early, protect kidney health.”

Early Detection and Main Challenges 

Nephrology is the medical specialty, a branch of internal medicine, that deals with the study of kidney structure and function, both in health and disease, including the prevention and treatment of kidney diseases.

“The main challenges include early detection and effective rejection control, variability in patients’ responses to treatments, management of opportunistic infections, and the need to reduce immunosuppressant toxicity without compromising their efficacy,” explains Nila Castelló, Operations Director at Biohope, an AseBio partner company established in 2015 and dedicated to the research and development of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tools for precision medicine to improve clinical outcomes in patients with autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammatory conditions. “Biohope’s ultimate goal is to help doctors optimize and personalize treatments, leading to better patient responses and higher quality of life,” adds Castelló.

IRYCIS, the Health Research Institute linked to the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital and also an AseBio partner, has at least two research groups focused on studying kidney pathophysiology and diseases: the “Renal and Vascular Physiology and Pathophysiology” group and the “Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets” group. Both work on discovering new pathophysiological mechanisms involved in CKD, aiming to identify biomarkers and new therapeutic targets, as well as the associated cardiovascular complications.

“We have demonstrated that the presence and activity of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) is related to the progression of obesity and insulin resistance in animal models and cell cultures,” explain the research groups. “The main research lines of these groups include studying the mechanisms responsible for cognitive impairment and sarcopenia in CKD, analyzing the role of ILK in disease progression, and developing new pharmacological modulators for this target,” they detail from IRYCIS. ILK represents a novel therapeutic target in the context of CKD and its associated complications, opening the door to more effective future treatments.

Biotechnology and early detection testing

World Kidney Day highlights that implementing global early detection policies is crucial to reduce healthcare costs associated with kidney failure and improve patients’ quality of life. In this regard, they stress the need to train healthcare staff to integrate CKD tests into routine care for high-risk populations.

Additionally, they propose including these tests in existing community interventions, conducting screenings outside traditional medical settings—such as town halls, churches, or markets—to increase access and efficiency.

Biotechnology plays a key role in personalizing treatments, developing safer and more effective therapies, and creating advanced diagnostic tools.

A notable example is the Immunobiogram® developed by Biohope, a clinical test that measures the immunosuppressive effect of drugs on a patient’s immune cells, allowing for personalized treatments and reducing the risk of organ transplant rejection. “With a simple blood sample, Immunobiogram® analyzes how a patient’s individual immune cells respond to different immunosuppressive treatments in kidney transplants,” Castelló explains. “This tool has already been clinically validated and regulatory approved, and we are currently working on its market introduction,” she adds.

However, Castelló warns that incorporating innovations like this into medical protocols is often a slow and costly process. “In nephrology, changes to clinical protocols do not progress as quickly as in other specialties, such as oncology, making it harder to implement new technologies,” she laments.

Biotechnology plays a key role in personalizing treatments, developing safer and more effective therapies, and creating advanced diagnostic tools. “It also opens the door to organ and tissue bioengineering, significantly expanding options for patients on transplant waiting lists,” Castelló asserts.

IRYCIS also looks to the future. “The combined analysis of biological biomarkers, along with environmental and clinical data collected iteratively, could anticipate the development of kidney complications before they clinically manifest,” they explain.

Biotechnology’s progress in the field of kidney diseases not only promises to improve current treatments but also transform prevention and early diagnosis.

Integrating these innovations into the healthcare system, alongside effective early detection programs and health education, will be key to reducing CKD’s impact in the coming decades. Collaboration between scientific research, biotechnology, and healthcare institutions offers a hopeful outlook for kidney patients and the future of nephrology.

From IRYCIS, they emphasize that “understanding renal and vascular pathophysiology is essential for preventing and treating kidney diseases. Advances will come from many research groups, and in Spain, we have excellent scientific teams.” They also highlight the potential of organoids—cellular structures that replicate basic organ functions—as an experimental tool to better understand kidney diseases. “In these studies, biotechnology is fundamental,” they conclude.