Medical Research

For the testing process, a specific biomarker was needed. We identified a well-known parameter, which is not only available in serum but also in saliva, called kynurenine[1]A biomarker is a measurable indicator of a biological state or pathological condition like inflammation. Different biomarkers are able to show that inflammation is present in an organism. One of them … Continue reading.

Clinical studies have shown, that kynurenine is a reliable diagnostic tool for the assessment of early stage post transplant inflammatory complications as well as for monitoring the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Kynurenine levels in patients experiencing rejection of a transplanted organ and levels of patients without rejection are significantly different, demonstrable not only in serum but also from saliva samples. Serum and saliva show not only a comparable kinetic. By measuring the level of kynurenine, both inflammation and transplant rejection can be shown significantly earlier than by using  the existing testing parameters, such as creatinine.

Our own studies, performed in Munich (LMU Großhadern) and Ulm (University of Ulm) were conducted not only with patients who have received kidney, pancreas or extremity transplant but also with patients who have received heart transplants. Similar studies were conducted at the University of Innsbruck and the Institute of Immunology in Heidelberg.

Furthermore we collected data regarding kynurenine levels in healthy individuals and patients: 
– With inflammatory diseases like flu, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, CMV infection (disease).
–  On dialysis (blood and peritoneal),
– With diseases like M.Crohn’s and Ecelampsia 
– Suffering from neurodegenerative diseases like M. Alzheimer, Parkinson and Depression.

In regards to transplantation, we have carried out more than sixteen thousand probes from more than seven hundred individual patients,  representing: renal, pancreas and renal, heart, small bowel and extremity transplantations.

This data was necessary for comparison of different levels of Kynurenine:. For example the   inflammation level in a patient with sepsis would represent the maximum while Kynurenine levels in healthy individuals represented the other extreme. Transient dialysis after organ transplant is not uncommon, so we also needed to know how kynurenine levels differ between patients on dialysis.

Other than from research results achieved in relation to transplantation, it has become apparent in recent years, that kynurenine plays an important role in the assessment of inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, tumor proliferation and depression. For futher information please read below regarding future applications.

References

References
1 A biomarker is a measurable indicator of a biological state or pathological condition like inflammation. Different biomarkers are able to show that inflammation is present in an organism. One of them is kynurenine. Kynurenine is a metabolite of the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid needed for normal growth in infants and for the production and maintenance of the body’s proteins, muscles, enzymes and neurotransmitters. While tryptophan is commonly considered as a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin, tryptophan can also be degraded to kynurenine as part of the production of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a cofactor central to metabolism.