The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled “Assessment of Serum Levels of Interleukine-31 and Total Bile Acids in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients on Hemodialysis with and without Uremic Pruritus” by the student Mustafa Shakir Abdulqahar and the supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Ali Abdulhussain Kasim, at the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department. The study aimed to investigate serum levels of interleukin-31 (IL-31) and total bile acids (TBAs) in chronic kidney disease patients undergoing hemodialysis, with and without uremic pruritus, in pre- and post-hemodialysis samples, and to study the association between the enrolled patients’ serum levels of IL-31 and TBAs. The study included conducting a cross-sectional study from July 2023 to November 2023. Patients who were enrolled in the study were chronic kidney disease patients undergoing hemodialysis in the dialysis unit at Al-Fallujah Teaching Hospital in Fallujah City. Ninety patients of both genders were enrolled: 45 patients with uremic pruritus and 45 patients without uremic pruritus. The results showed that the TBAs levels were positively correlated with IL-31 levels in pre-dialysis samples. The study also indicated that hemodialysis procedures might be inefficient in removing TBAs and may need to be tailored according to patients’ conditions and pre-dialysis serum bile acid levels. On the other hand, serum IL-31 levels do not seem to be associated with uremic pruritus.

In conclusion, the study recommended the following:

  1. Mechanistic investigation of the underlying mechanisms linking TBAs and IL-31 in the pathogenesis of uremic pruritus.
  2. Conducting longitudinal assessment to monitor changes in the serum levels of TBAs and IL-31 over time in chronic kidney disease patients undergoing hemodialysis.
  3. Evaluation of the potential therapeutic implications of targeting TBAs or IL-31 in the management of uremic pruritus. If specific alterations in these biomarkers are consistently associated with the presence of pruritus, they could represent novel therapeutic targets.
  4. Exploring the impact of different hemodialysis modalities or techniques on the clearance and relationship between TBAs and IL-31.

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