Higher Viral Load of Polyomavirus Type BK but not JC among Renal Transplant Recipients in Comparison to Donors

Abstract

Scan to discover onlineBackground & Objective: Polyomaviruses types BK and JC and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) have been shown to be related to kidney transplantation complications. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of these viruses in patients receiving kidney transplantation. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 40 kidney transplant recipients and 44 donors. Urine samples were used for the extraction of viral DNA. The prevalence of JC and BK viruses and their viral loads were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction.Results: JC and BK viruses were identified in 31% and 92.3% of all subjects, respectively. The frequency of JC and BK cases was not statistically different between the recipient and donor groups (P>0.05). All patients in the donor group and 96.8% of the recipients were positive for CMV IgG antibody. The mean viral load of BK in donors and recipients was 4.5×10 10 and 3.3×10 11 copies, respectively. The mean viral load of JC was 8.6×10 7 copies in donors and 2.9×10 8 copies in recipients. The distribution of BKV was significantly higher in recipients than donors (P=0.001), while no difference was observed between the two studied groups for JCV. Conclusion:This study showed a relatively high prevalence of BK and JC viruria in both renal transplant donors and recipients. The viral load for BKV, but not JCV, was higher in recipients than in donors.

Genotypes and Variants of BKPyV in Organ Donors after Brain Death

“…The detected frequency of viruria is usually lower among healthy people and mainly affects older groups, varying from 6% to more than 40% [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], and it increases particularly in patients undergoing immunosuppression, reaching over 50% in kidney transplant recipients [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Nevertheless, current reports [ 28 ] indicate a significantly higher prevalence of viruria, confirming the presence of BKPyV genetic material in the urine of over 90% of donors and in nearly 90% of recipients. According to literature data and our expectations, the prevalence of BKPyV infections detected in the group of DBDs should increase with age, which in the present study was confirmed in the case of genotype I and variant Ib-2_POL_K, but not in the case of genotype IV.…”