• Press Release

Mount Sinai Researchers Identify Way to Predict and Prevent Damage in Donated Kidneys

  • New York, NY
  • (July 21, 2016)

A multicenter team of researchers led by  Barbara Murphy, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has identified a panel of genes which can help predict whether a transplanted kidney will later develop fibrosis, an injury which can cause the organ to fail. Their results were published in the July 21 edition of Lancet.

Researchers in the Genomics of Chronic Allograft Rejection (GoCAR) study obtained biopsy samples from transplanted kidneys three months and twelve months after transplantation. Using microarray, a method by which the expression levels of a large numbers of genes or proteins can be measured simultaneously, the researchers determined which genes were correlated with biopsy samples which had an increased Chronic Allograft Damage Index (CADI) score at the 12-month biopsy. The CADI score is a measure of the level of fibrosis in the transplanted kidney. The researchers then narrowed the genes down to a predictive gene set that identified patients at risk for decline in renal function and loss of the transplanted kidney beyond one year. The rate of correlation of the identified gene set with damage was greater than the clinico-pathological variables currently used in practice to identify kidney transplant recipients at risk of allograft damage and loss.

“This is the first finding of its kind,” said Barbara Murphy, System Chair of Medicine for the Mount Sinai Health System and Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the lead investigator on the study. “By helping us better understand the causes of damage to transplanted kidneys, this study has the potential to change how we monitor and manage all renal transplant patients.”

“The study offers the potential to identify renal transplant recipients at risk for a loss of the new organ prior to the development of irreversible damage,” said Dr. Murphy. “This would mean that doctors might eventually have the opportunity to change the therapeutic treatment approach in order to prevent fibrosis from progressing at all.”

Other institutions involved in the study include Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Northwestern University; Massachusetts General Hospital; Brigham and Women’s Hospital; University of Michigan; and University of Wisconsin.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.

As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.

Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.

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