Methods of diagnosing and predicting renal disease

A method of determining whether a human subject has an increased risk of developing early renal function decline (ERFD), the method comprising:

• obtaining a sample from a human subject who has normoalbuminuria (NA) or microalbuminuria (MA), or proteinuria (PT);
• detecting the presence of and measuring levels of one or more biomarkers selected from the group consisting of soluble TNF receptor type 1 (sTNFR1) and soluble TNF receptor type 2 (sTNFR2) in the subject sample with one or both of an anti-sTNFR1 antibody and an anti-sTNFR2 antibody;
• detecting binding and measuring the level of binding between one or both of sTNFR1 and the antibody, and sTNFR2 and the antibody;
• comparing the subject levels with reference levels of one or both of sTNFR1 and sTNFR2;
• determining the subject has an increased risk of developing ERFD based on the comparison of the subject levels with the reference levels, wherein the presence of one or both of sTNFR1 and sTNFR2 in the subject sample at levels that are higher than the reference levels indicates that the subject has an increased risk of developing ERFD;
• and
• implementing an ERFD therapeutic strategy in the subject determined to have increased risk of developing ERFD.