Urinary proteomics: a tool to discover biomarkers of kidney diseases

There is intense interest in applying proteomics to urine analysis in order to promote a better understanding of kidney disease processes, develop new biomarkers for diagnosis and detect early factors that contribute to end-stage renal diseases. This interest creates numerous opportunities as well as challenges. To fulfill this task, proteomics requires, in its different stages of realization, various technological platforms with high sensitivity, high throughput and large automation ability. In this review, we will give an overview of promising proteomic methods that can be used for analyzing urinary proteome and detecting biomarkers for different kidney diseases. Furthermore, we will focus on the current status and future directions in investigating kidney diseases using urinary proteomics.