Elsevier

Journal of Clinical Virology

Volume 71, October 2015, Pages 59-62
Journal of Clinical Virology

Review
Mechanisms of BK virus infection of renal cells and therapeutic implications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2015.08.003Get rights and content
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open access

Highlights

  • Nephritis induced by BK virus (BKV), a non-enveloped double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) polyomavirus, remains a severe problem after renal transplantation.

  • In view of limited success of routine anti-viral therapy the future directions of treatment should take advantage of the knowledge of early steps of BKV entry into the target cells.

  • Caveolar endocytosis is critical for BKV infection of human renal tubular epithelial cells.

  • An N-linked glycoprotein or ganglioside containing alpha(2,3)-linked sialic acid is a critical component of the cellular receptor for BKV.

  • Novel potential direction of therapeutic intervention of BKV nephritis are strategies based either on prevention of binding of BKV particles to cellular receptors on renal tubular epithelial cells or interference of caveolin-mediated endocytosis and intracellular trafficking of BKV.

Abstract

BK virus (BKV) causes BKV nephritis in renal transplant patients and contributes significantly to the increase of probability of graft loss. BKV, being latent in the urogenital tract, is likely to be transported with the donor kidney to recipients and following reactivation replicates in the nucleus of renal epithelial tubular cells. BKV daughter viruses are released and enter other renal epithelial cells to spread infection. There are still a lot of unknown factors about the mechanism and kinetics of BKV infection. The treatment of BKV infection, with exception of reduction in immunosuppression which increases the risk of allograft rejection, is almost exclusively limited to application of anti-viral drugs with rather inconsistent results. The shortcomings of anti-viral therapies demand the understanding of early steps of infection of permissive cells by BK virus in hope that adequate interventional therapies preventing infection of cells with BK virus could be developed. This review describes the BKV entry in target human cells, intracellular trafficking pathways of BKV particles and potential therapeutic implications based on understanding of mechanisms of BKV infection of renal cells.

Abbreviations

BKV
BK virus
JCV
JC virus
BKVN
BKV nephropathy
VP1
viral protein 1
HRPTEC
human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells
Cav-1
Caveolin-1
ER
endoplasmic reticulum
GA
Golgi system
mPyV
mouse polyomavirus

Keywords

BK virus
Caveolar-dependent Endocytosis
Statins
Cellular receptor
Renal transplantation

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Present address: Nephrology Physicians LLC, Mishawaka, IN, 46545, USA