BK Polyomavirus microRNA in Kidney Transplant Recipient

BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy (PyVAN) remains a serious threat for renal dysfunction and graft loss in kidney transplant recipients on immunosuppressive medication. In this study, a pilot cohort of 16 kidney transplant recipients were recruited of which eight were with significant BKPV viremia (sBKPV) and the rest were controls matched to age, gender, and time since transplant. We used next-generation sequencing to characterize the miRNA expression profile in urine samples. In total, the expression of 8 miRNAs (miR-16-5p,miR-200c-3p,bkv-miR-B1-3p,let-7b-3p,miR-1269b,bkv-miR-B1-5p,miR-193a-3p,miR-944) were upregulated whereas 21miRNAs (miR-134-5p,miR-4724-5p,miR-127-3p,miR-6500-3p,miR-507,miR-378b,miR-3911,miR-211-5p,miR-486-5p,miR-143-3p,miR-3195,miR-1307-5p,miR-29a-5p,miR-378f,miR-12136,miR-378g,miR-144-3p,miR-378a-3p,let-7i-5p,miR-204-5p,miR-146a-5p) were downregulated with fold change > 2. We found that bkv-miR-B1-5p and bkv-miR-B1-3p have 19-fold and 5-fold higher expression values in BKPV viremia patient samples, respectively. A few earlier studies have reported BKV miRNA in urine and serum samples using the RT- PCR from PyVAN patients. Our results corroborated findings from earlier studies and highlighted the need for additional evaluation of the role of sequencing approaches for monitoring BKPV specific and host miRNAs to better understand the viral reactivation and disease pathogenesis.