Journal of Inflammation Research

Targeting Inflammation in Kidney Diseases

The Journal of Inflammation Research is pleased to welcome you to submit your research to the Article Collection "Targeting Inflammation in Kidney Diseases".

Kidney diseases have become one of the leading medical problems worldwide. Chronic kidney disease and its complications, affecting more than 850 million individuals worldwide represents major healthcare concern. Glomerular diseases together with diabetes mellitus are the leading causes of kidney damage, with inflammatory pathways being especially involved in these disorders. Immunosuppression is the cornerstone of treatment of various kidney diseases, however due to significant side effects and often limited effectiveness targeted therapy towards inappropriate immune system activation, with limited harmful potential is highly required. Despite newer agents registered to control inflammatory processes in several kidney disorders, their impact on long-term outcomes, including glomerular filtration rate trajectory, cardiovascular outcomes and survival remain limited.

Most kidney disorders are related with inappropriate inflammatory response, resulting in kidney and extrarenal tissues damage. As the inflammation remains one of the most fundamental processes responsible for kidney diseases, analysing mechanisms involved in their pathogenesis is of special importance. Exploring inflammatory pathways not only will help to understand processes involved in kidney damage, but also may path the way towards novel, more specific agents in its treatment, thus improving patients outcomes. Understanding molecular mechanisms of kidney damage is not only pivotal in patients with already established kidney disease, but also in patients after kidney transplantation, in whom disease recurrence can be expected. Since blocking inflammatory responses often requires complex and long-term treatment affecting multiple molecular targets, leading to significant side effects, strategies towards limiting the number of drugs used in the treatment of inflammatory-related kidney diseases is one of the most popular goals of recent investigations.

In this Collection we highly recommend to present data on the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis kidney diseases, especially in the form of original research, research letters, clinical trial reports, short reports, reviews, case reports and case series, and research letters. Articles focusing on glomerular diseases are of special interest. Also, we welcome basic research articles, investigating the activity of pathways involved in inflammatory-mediated kidney damage.

Keywords: Glomerulonephritis; Vasculitis; Chronic kidney disease; Kidney transplantation; Immunosuppression

Meet the Guest Advisors

Dr. Izabela Zakrocka is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nephrology at the Medical University of Lublin, Poland. Board certified in internal medicine, nephrology and clinical transplantology, Clinical Kidney Journal Top Reviewer (2023, 2024). Dr. Zakrocka is interested in the pathogenesis of kidney diseases (especially with immunological and genetic background), uremic toxins molecular effects and pharmacotherapy of various types of kidney damage. Dr. Zakrocka is an author of experimental studies on the role of tryptophan metabolites in kidney disorders and methods of their synthesis regulation, results of my experiments were presented during European Renal Association and American Society of Nephrology congresses.

Dr. Alicja Rydzewska-Rosołowska, MD, is a Professor of Medicine and Vice Head of the Department of Nephrology and Hypertension at the Medical University of Białystok, Poland. She is a specialist in internal medicine, nephrology, and clinical transplantation, combining clinical practice with research and postgraduate education. Her research interests include inflammation and cardiovascular complications in kidney disease, hemodialysis, glomerular diseases, and kidney biopsy. She is the principal investigator of the STOP-BLEED randomized clinical trial evaluating desmopressin in kidney biopsy and has extensive experience as an investigator in clinical trials across a broad spectrum of glomerular diseases. She is an active member of national and international nephrology societies and has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications covering clinical and translational aspects of kidney disease.

Cecilia Barnini, MD, is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine, currently working as a research fellow in Nephrology and pursuing a PhD at the Medical University of Innsbruck under the supervision of Professor Andreas Kronbichler. Her research topics are immune-mediated diseases affecting the kidneys with a special focus on ANCA-associated vasculitis; chronic kidney disease progression and kidney fibrosis.

Clemens Untersulzner, MD, is a physician and clinical PhD candidate in Nephrology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, where he completed his medical degree in 2025. His research focuses on renal autoimmunity as well as CKD-MBD under the supervision of Professor Dr. Andreas Kronbichler, PhD.