Network analysis diagnoses kidney disease

Network analysis diagnoses kidney disease. Obstructive nephropathy (ON) is the most common kidney disease among children. Sufferers have a blockage of the urinary tract, which forces urine back into the kidney. If unrecognized and unchecked, the ensuing damage shuts down the organ. In principle, kidney function and malfunction are reflected in the metabolites that pass through the kidney and the regulators that control the metabolites’ consumption and production. But of the myriad species of metabolites and regulators, which ones presage ON? To answer that question, Massimiliano Zanin and Stefano Boccaletti of the Technical University of Madrid turned to network theory. Their starting point was a database of 852 metabolites and 834 regulators (microRNAs) drawn from 10 ON patients and a 10-member control group. Levels of metabolites and regulators varied within each group. Still, it proved possible to construct for each metabolite (or regulator) a network that embodied how far every...