Quinolinic acid metabolism may mitigate AKI to CKD transition

Emerging evidence suggests that alterations in tryptophan metabolism, particularly in the production of downstream metabolites such as quinolinic acid (QA), play a role in renal pathophysiology. QA is a NAD⁺ biosynthesis intermediate metabolized by the enzyme quinolinate phosphoribosyltransferase (QPRT).

In this study, we investigated the role of QA in the AKI-to-CKD transition using experimental mouse models and clinical observations and leveraging multiple omics approaches. Systematic metabolomic profiling identified endogenous QA as one of the most significantly elevated metabolites following folic acid-(FA) induced injury. Exogenous QA exacerbated FA-induced kidney dysfunction, demonstrated with several techniques including RNA sequencing.