NU15 - Evaluation of Alpha Enolase as a Marker of Renal Disease in Cats

Abstract: Background - Kidney disease is a common cause of mortality in cats and additional markers for early diagnosis are needed. Alpha-enolase is a glycolytic pathway enzyme and is a potential biomarker for kidney disease as it changes distribution in the kidneys with age.



Hypothesis/Objectives - As kidneys are damaged, the degeneration of renal tubules will lead to increased concentrations of alpha-enolase in the urine and serum.



Animals – Remnant urine and serum samples from cats in previous studies stored at -80⁰C until assayed.



Methods – Alpha-enolase is highly conserved and so a human kit (Abnova Corp. Taiwan) was used. Alpha-enolase was spiked into urine of normal cats to determine if inhibitors were present and to optimize the technique. Alpha-enolase was measured in the serum and urine from 6 cats in a vaccine hyper-inoculation model that had shown redistribution of α-enolase within the kidneys. Lastly, α-enolase was measured in serum and urine from 21 client-owned cats with and without kidney disease.



Results – Detection of α-enolase was optimal if urine was normalized to a USG of 1.010. While vaccine hyper-inoculation changed α-enolase distribution in kidneys, it was only detected in 2 sera and no urine samples. In client-owned cats with and without CKD, α-enolase was only detected in 2 sera and no urine samples.



Conclusions and clinical importance – Detection of α-enolase was not beneficial as a marker of kidney changes in the 2 sample sets assessed to date. Assessment of samples from cats with acute kidney injury is ongoing.