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
Clinical Trial
. 2008 Oct;43(2):184-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2008.06.009. Epub 2008 Aug 3.

BK virus antibody titers and intensity of infections after renal transplantation

Daniel L Bohl  1 , Daniel C Brennan, Caroline Ryschkewitsch, Monique Gaudreault-Keener, Eugene O Major, Gregory A Storch
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

BK virus antibody titers and intensity of infections after renal transplantation

Daniel L Bohl et al. J Clin Virol. 2008 Oct.

Abstract

Background: The mean urine BK viral load in kidney transplant recipients increases with the intensity of infection as the infection progresses from transient viruria to sustained viremia.

Objectives: This study investigated whether the intensity of infection is associated with the humoral immune response.

Study design: We measured BKV-specific IgG antibody titers in stored samples obtained serially over a 1-year period from 70 kidney transplant recipients with BKV infection and 17 control recipients without active BKV infection.

Results: The mean pre-transplant BKV antibody level was lower in recipients who developed viremia than the mean level in those who never developed viremia (p=0.004). Mean antibody titers in recipients who never showed evidence of active BKV infection rose slightly after transplant despite immunosuppression. The magnitude of the rise in the mean antibody titers in recipients who developed active BKV infection correlated with the intensity of infection (p<0.001).

Conclusions: The mean antibody level increased in accordance with the intensity of the infection post-transplant. Pre-transplant seropositivity did not protect against sustained viremia and the antibody response was not associated with clearance of the virus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Selection of subjects and specimens for testing. Panel A shows selection of subjects from the 200 participants in the original clinical study. Panel B shows the time course in a representative patient with sustained viremia to display the viral events which were used to select plasma samples for BKV antibody testing. BKV antibody levels were tested pre-transplantation, at the onset of viruria, peak urine viral DNA level, onset of viremia, peak plasma viral DNA level, last episode of viremia, and 1 year. In this recipient, the last episode of viruria and 1 year sample were identical.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Post-transplant BKV antibody response related to virologic events (panel A) and time after transplant (panel B). In panel A, transplant recipients are divided according to type of post-transplant BKV infection. For the group of recipients with each type of infection, the boxes summarize the BKV antibody levels at the time of specified virologic events during the course of post-transplant BKV infection. Recipients with no BKV infection are also included. Each box summarizes all antibody measurements in the group at the time of the specified viral event. Median values are indicated by thick black lines. Boxes represent the interquartile range. Horizontal lines connected from above and below the hinges by whiskers represent the most extreme values within 1.5 times the interquartile range. Circles represent outliners, and asterisks represent extreme outliers. In panel B, each line represents one of the types of BKV infection. Each point represents the mean time of occurrence after transplantation of one of the virologic events shown in panel A and the mean BKV antibody titer at the time of that event. The points are connected by straight lines.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Relationship of BKV antibody levels measured by pre-transplant and at 1-year post-transplant with the intensity of BKV infection. Points represent mean antibody titers and the horizontal lines above and below represent the 95% Cl. Pre-transplant mean antibody titers differed between groups: transient viruria vs. transient viremia, p = 0.015, transient viruria vs. sustained viremia, p = 0.007, and sustained viruria vs, sustained viremia, p = 0.036. 1 year mean antibody titers differed significantly (p <0.05) between groups with two exceptions: transient viruria vs. sustained viruria, p = 0.073, and transient viremia vs. sustained viremia, p = 0.173.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gardner SD, Field AM, Coleman DV, Hulme B. New human papovavirus (BK) isolated from urine after renal transplantation. Lancet. 1971;1:1253–7. - PubMed
    1. Knowles WA, Khalili K, Stoner G. Human polyomaviruses; molecular and clinical prospective. New York: Wiley-Liss Inc; 2001. The epidemiology of BK virus and the occurrence of antigenic and genomic subtypes ; pp. 527–560.
    1. Knowles WA, Pipkin P, Andrews N, Vyse A, Minor P, Brown DW, et al. Population-based study of antibody to the human polyomaviruses BKV and JCV and the simian polyomavirus SV40. J Med Virol. 2003;71:115–23. - PubMed
    1. Hirsch HH, Steiger J. Polyomavirus BK. Lancet Infect Dis. 2003;3:611–23. - PubMed
    1. Ginevri F, De Santis R, Comoli P, Pastorino N, Rossi C, Botti G, et al. Polyomavirus BK infection in pediatric kidney-allograft recipients: a single-center analysis of incidence, risk factors, and novel therapeutic approaches. Transplantation. 2003;75:1266–70. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms