编者按：在第62届欧洲肾脏协会（ERA）年会上，爱尔兰籍肾脏病学专家兼重症医学专家、牛津大学沃弗森学院卒中与痴呆预防中心研究员Dearbhla Kelly博士荣获2025年Eberhard Ritz临床科学奖。肾医线就此对她进行了专访，探讨了她的研究方向、获奖意义及未来规划。

获奖殊荣：既是肯定，更是前行的动力

当被问及此次获奖对个人的意义时，Kelly博士坦言这是一份巨大的荣誉和惊喜。“我由衷感谢欧洲肾脏协会的认可，也感激评选委员会对我申请的青睐。”她表示，这份荣誉无疑将激励自己更加努力，产出更优质的科研成果，为改善医疗健康贡献力量。“尽管对科研的热忱本就存在，但外界对研究工作的认可总能带来额外的鼓舞。”

Nephrology On-line: Congratulations on receiving the ERA Eberhard Ritz Award! What does this recognition mean to you personally, and how do you think it will influence your future research and career development?

Dr Kelly: I'm just deeply honored by the ERA. It was a very pleasant surprise. I am considerate of the Selection Committee for looking at my application so kindly, and it is just an honor and a thrill, obviously. I think in terms of influencing my career going forward, obviously I think it is definitely an incentive to work harder, be more productive, do better science, and change healthcare for the better. It is not that those incentives weren't already there, but I think having some external validation of your work is always encouraging.

跨学科背景下的研究焦点：肾脏疾病与大脑健康的关联

拥有多学科背景的Kelly博士，其研究核心始终围绕肾脏疾病与大脑健康的关联展开。她最初聚焦慢性肾脏病与卒中的关系，随后扩展至痴呆领域；而目前，她的研究重心已从慢性肾脏病阶段转向急性肾损伤（AKI），探索其与急性脑损伤及慢性脑损伤的关联。

“如今，学界对这一领域的兴趣日益浓厚，本次ERA年会上就有几场报告探讨了急性肾损伤与痴呆的风险关联。”Kelly博士认为，肾脏与大脑健康领域正迎来充满活力的研究时期，未来将涌现更多有趣的发现。

Nephrology On-line: You have quite a multidisciplinary background. What is the key focus now for your research?

Dr Kelly: Yeah, that's a good question. My focus has largely been centered on the relationship between kidney disease and brain health. I guess initially I focused a lot on chronic kidney disease and stroke, and then maybe later dementia. I think at the moment I am looking a little bit more at the relationship between acute kidney injury and acute brain injury and also chronic brain injury. So, my focus has switched maybe from the chronic disease stage to the acute kidney injury spectrum. I think there is also some growing interest in this sphere and in general, as there has been a couple of talks at this ERA meeting about the risk between AKI and dementia. I think there is a lot of interesting research to come in this area. It’s an exciting time for the kidney and the brain. 

最新研究成果：从慢性肾脏病到遗传流行病学的多维探索

在本次ERA年会上，Kelly博士分享了多项研究成果，涵盖她至今的核心探索方向，包括：关于慢性肾脏病、蛋白尿与卒中风险的系统综述及荟萃分析；基于牛津血管研究（Oxford Vascular Study）的数据分析，探讨肾病患者的卒中流行病学特征及预后；依托弗雷明汉心脏研究（Framingham Heart Study），分析慢性肾脏病与脑小血管病、痴呆的关联；在波士顿做博士后期间进行的遗传流行病学研究，旨在厘清肾脏疾病与卒中之间的因果关系。

此外，她还提到正在推进的新项目——聚焦ICU中透析患者的脑血流动力学研究。

Nephrology On-line: At this ERA, you are also presenting some of your research findings. Would you like to share those with our audience?

Dr Kelly: I am giving a talk this afternoon. I will be giving an overview of my research to-date. I'll be talking a bit about some of my systematic review and meta-analysis work on stroke risks, particularly in relation to chronic kidney disease and proteinuria. I'm also speaking about some of my analyses from the Oxford Vascular Study, where we looked at stroke epidemiology in people with kidney disease and stroke outcomes, and some of my work from the Framingham Heart Study on cognitive disorders, so the relationship between chronic kidney disease and cerebral small vessel disease and dementia. And then some of my genetic epidemiological work from my postdoc in Boston, where I tried to disentangle some of the causal relationships between kidney disease and stroke. One of my future research projects that are currently in development are related to cerebral hemodynamics in patients on dialysis in the ICU.

关注ERA热点：从临床试验到未来研究方向

谈及本次ERA年会的亮点，Kelly博士对会议的学术质量和组织工作给予高度评价，她尤其关注“最新突破性试验”专场。她指出，当前肾病领域涌现出诸多令人振奋的进展，例如针对心血管疾病预防的潜在疗法，以及延缓肾病进展（包括糖尿病肾病、IgA肾病等）的疾病修饰治疗。

其中，CONFIDENCE试验的结果让她尤为关注——该研究显示，SGLT2抑制剂与非奈利酮联合使用可通过降低蛋白尿减少心血管结局风险。“这一机制仍需深入探索：是通过延缓肾脏实质病变进展从而抑制动脉粥样硬化加速，还是涉及内皮功能障碍、炎症等分子层面的作用？”进一步厘清这些机制会非常有意义。Kelly博士进一步提出，未来可探索“降低蛋白尿是否能直接减少卒中、痴呆等神经认知结局风险”，这一方向可能需要大型临床试验的验证。

Nephrology On-line: At this year’s ERA Congress so far, are there some topics you are following or something that has caught your attention?

Dr Kelly: I think it has been a fantastic meeting. My congratulations to all the organizers. The science has been really wonderful and encouraging. I think certainly the late breaking trial sessions have been quite exciting. I think it's a great time for nephrology patients because we now have lots of potentially meaningful treatments for cardiovascular disease prevention and also disease-modifying treatments for the progression of kidney disease, both in general, in diabetes, and also in IgA nephropathies. There is lots of really exciting stuff out there and it's a great time for nephrology research. 

Nephrology On-line: Amongst all these studies, do you see something to trigger your imagination for future research design and directions?

Dr Kelly: Oh, good question. I was quite interested in the results from the CONFIDENCE trial, I think, where the combined use of SGLT-2 inhibitors and finerenone showed some of the cardiovascular outcome reduction was mediated through proteinuria reduction. I think it is quite an interesting concept, because it's sort of unclear what the mechanisms are there - whether it's just by slowing the progression of parenchymal kidney disease and the associated effect it has on atherosclerosis acceleration contributing to that, or whether it speaks to something that is occurring at a different molecular level in terms of endothelial dysfunction or inflammation. It would be really interesting to disentangle those further. I just wonder what the effects of proteinuria reduction specifically would be in terms of reducing neurocognitive outcomes like stroke and dementia. I think there's a little bit of work to do in this area, and probably the need for a big trial essentially. 

总结

从慢性肾脏病到急性肾损伤，从流行病学数据到遗传机制，Kelly博士的研究始终跨越肾脏与神经领域的边界。随着Eberhard Ritz奖对她工作的肯定，这位年轻学者将继续深耕“肾脑关联”领域，为揭示两大器官间的复杂互动、改善患者预后贡献更多力量。