MicroRNA as an early diagnostic biomarker for contrast-induced acute kidney injury

Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) is a common clinical complication and an important cause of increased mortality, prolonged hospitalization, and increased medical costs. For taking effective interventions in CI-AKI, early diagnosis and active prevention are of key importance. Currently, early CI-AKI detection depends on serum creatinine (Scr) levels, which lags behind the actual time of renal injury and seriously affects early diagnosis and interventions. MicroRNA (miRNA) has been found to be a useful biomarker in early CI-AKI diagnosis. Several studies have reported on tissue and time-specific miRNAs in AKI as effective diagnostic biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets, but there are only a few studies on miRNA in CI-AKI. However, these studies are preliminary exploratory investigations on changes in miRNA expression in CI-AKI, and whether these specific miRNAs can be used as biomarkers for early CI-AKI diagnosis and as clinical therapeutic targets requires systematic and in-depth studies. Therefore, more sensitive and specific miRNAs of CI-AKI could be discovered, providing newer options and development directions for early diagnosis and intervention in clinical CI-AKI practice. This review evaluates the research progress on specific miRNAs in the early diagnosis of CI-AKI with an aim of providing basic data for the clinical application of these molecular markers in CI-AKI.