Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Oct 14;11(10):945.
doi: 10.3390/v11100945.

Pre-Transplantation Assessment of BK Virus Serostatus: Significance, Current Methods, and Obstacles

Fatima Dakroub  1   2 , Antoine Touzé  3 , Haidar Akl  4 , Etienne Brochot  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Pre-Transplantation Assessment of BK Virus Serostatus: Significance, Current Methods, and Obstacles

Fatima Dakroub et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

The immunosuppression required for graft tolerance in kidney transplant patients can trigger latent BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) reactivation, and the infection can progress to nephropathy and graft rejection. It has been suggested that pre-transplantation BKPyV serostatus in donors and recipients is a predictive marker for post-transplantation BKPyV replication. The fact that research laboratories have used many different assay techniques to determine BKPyV serostatus complicates these data analysis. Even studies based on the same technique differed in their standard controls choice, the antigenic structure type used for detection, and the cut-off for seropositivity. Here, we review the different BKPyV VP1 antigens types used for detection and consider the various BKPyV serostatus assay techniques' advantages and disadvantages. Lastly, we highlight the obstacles in the implementation of a consensual BKPyV serologic assay in clinics (e.g., the guidelines absence in this field).

Keywords: BK virus; BK virus serology; kidney transplantation; serological technique.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest manuscript or in the decision to publish the results.

References

    1. Soulillou J.-P. Immune Monitoring for Rejection of Kidney Transplants. N. Engl. J. Med. 2001;344:1006–1007. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200103293441309. - DOI - PubMed
    1. KDIGO KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline for the Care of Kidney Transplant Recipients. Am. J. Transplant. 2009;9:S1–S155. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-6143.2009.02834.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fishman J.A. BK Virus Nephropathy—Polyomavirus Adding Insult to Injury. N. Engl. J. Med. 2002;347:527–530. doi: 10.1056/NEJMe020076. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ambalathingal G.R., Francis R.S., Smyth M.J., Smith C., Khanna R. BK Polyomavirus: Clinical Aspects, Immune Regulation, and Emerging Therapies. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 2017;30:503–528. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00074-16. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wunderink H.F., van der Meijden E., van der Blij-de Brouwer C.S., Mallat M.J.K., Haasnoot G.W., van Zwet E.W., Claas E.C.J., de Fijter J.W., Kroes A.C.M., Arnold F., et al. Pretransplantation Donor-Recipient Pair Seroreactivity Against BK Polyomavirus Predicts Viremia and Nephropathy After Kidney Transplantation. Am. J. Transplant. 2017;17:161–172. doi: 10.1111/ajt.13880. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms