Urine sTREM-1 assessment in diagnosing sepsis and sepsis-related acute kidney injury

The triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) is an immunoreceptor whose role is to amplify the inflammatory response mediated by the engagement of Toll-like and NOD-like receptors. As the expression of TREM-1 is believed to be upregulated during infection, this protein has been studied as a sepsis biomarker. In the previous issue of Critical Care, Su and colleagues reported on the usefulness of urinary soluble TREM-1 in diagnosing sepsis and assessing its severity. Importantly, the authors describe, for the first time, that urinary soluble TREM-1 measurement is able to predict the development of sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (AKI). If these results were to be confirmed by larger studies, urinary soluble TREM-1 would possibly become a new biomarker for sepsis-associated AKI.