Finerenone for the treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a clinical condition associated with a high risk of cardiovascular (CV) events, mortality and progression to most severe stage of the disease, also known as kidney failure (KF). CKD is characterized by a wide variability of progression, which depends, in part, on the variability of individual response to nephroprotective treatments. Thus, a consistent proportion of patients have an elevated residual risk both CV and renal events, confirmed by the evidence that about 70% of CKD patients followed by the nephrologist have residual proteinuria. Among the new therapeutic strategies, which have been developed precisely with the aim of minimizing this residual risk, a class of particular interest is represented by the new non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (non-steroidal MRA). These drugs exert an important anti-fibrotic and anti-proteinuric effect and, unlike steroid MRAs, are associated with a much lower incidence of adverse effects. The non-steroidal MRA molecule for which the most data is available, which is finerenone, is potent and extremely selective, and this partly explains the differences in efficacy and safety compared to steroid MRAs. In clinical trials, finerenone has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of progression to KF. Furthermore, there is also evidence that the combination of non-steroidal MRAs together with SGLT2 inhibitors may represent a valid alternative to reduce the residual risk in CKD patients. Given this evidence, non-steroidal MRAs are gaining momentum in the care, and particularly in individualized care, of CKD patients.