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

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.

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.

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 4.5×10¹⁰ and 3.3×10¹¹ copies, respectively. The mean viral load of JC was 8.6×10⁷ copies in donors and 2.9×10⁸ 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.

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.