Promising non-invasive biomarkers for kidney allograft monitoring: a mini review.

Significant advancements have been made in kidney transplantation, with a wealth of immunosuppressive and antimicrobial therapies that have significantly improved graft survival. Despite these accomplishments, the ability to promptly identify kidney allograft pathology for these therapies has been limited by the reliance on kidney biopsy as the gold-standard diagnostic modality, which is invasive. To overcome these limitations, non-invasive biomarkers have been developed over the past two decades. Donor-derived cell-free DNA, gene expression profiling, urinary chemokines, extracellular vesicles, microRNA, and Torque Teno Virus are candidates near or already in clinical use. This mini-review discusses the strengths and limitations of these biomarkers for the surveillance and prognostication of renal allografts.