ReviewInternational journal of nephrology and renovascular disease2026
Predictive Molecular Biomarkers in Pediatric Steroid-Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome: A Systematic Review.
Review in International journal of nephrology and renovascular disease, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nephrotic syndrome is the leading cause of pediatric chronic kidney disease, particularly the steroid-resistant subtype (SRNS). The current diagnostic paradigm relies on prolonged steroid trials or invasive biopsies, often delaying optimal treatment. This study systematically synthesizes evidence from cohort studies on non-invasive molecular biomarkers predicting SRNS at onset. We searched PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and MEDLINE Ultimate via EBSCO for cohort studies published between January 2015 and September 2025. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD420251147997), and quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Eleven studies comprising 718 study-level participant observations were included; as two studies originated from an overlapping cohort within a single research group, the number of unique children is likely lower. Candidate molecular signatures were identified across plasma proteins, cytokines, metabolites, urinary markers, transcriptomic markers, and a genetic/epigenetic model. Multi-marker panels showed high predictive utility, including a plasma protein panel (VDB+ADIPOQ+MMP2; AUC 0.780; P = 0.003) and a cytokine panel (IL-7+IL-9+MCP-1; AUC 0.846; sensitivity 64.3%; specificity 84.6%). Among individual markers, TGF-β2 mRNA showed the highest predictive accuracy (AUC 0.972; P < 0.001) in a small single cohort, followed by plasma glutamine in an age-combined model (AUC 0.810; OR 1.01), while reduced plasma malonate showed predictive value in children older than 3 years (AUC 0.84; OR 0.94). Conversely, urinary VDBP failed to distinguish SRNS from SSNS (P = 0.417), suggesting possible confounding by proteinuria severity. These exploratory findings suggest that several molecular biomarkers, particularly composite panels, may hold promise for future early risk stratification; however, given the small number and size of cohorts, participant overlap, and methodological heterogeneity, these results should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating rather than evidence of superiority of any single biomarker class, requiring validation in larger, independent, prospective cohorts before clinical application.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.