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SYDNEY, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) – In collaboration with researchers at the New York Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, scientists at Australia's Centenary Institute have discovered a new virus that causes kidney disease in mice. in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic and infantile renal failure.
Kidney disease affects up to 18% of adults, which means that the discovery, published Friday in the prestigious scientific journal Cell, could help improve the lives of a large number of people.
"This breakthrough provides new information on kidney disease of viral origin, which is a major problem in kidney transplant patients," said lead author Dr. Ben Roediger of the Imaging and Diagnostic Laboratory. of Centenary skin inflammation.
"In addition, the virus itself seems to be very kidney-specific, which means we can potentially exploit its surface protein to develop gene therapies against hereditary infantile kidney disease."
The breakthrough occurred when the researchers noticed that some immunocompromised laboratory mice had died younger than expected, and further research showed that the cause of death was kidney failure.
By performing a state-of-the-art DNA sequencing diagnosis in mice, the team discovered the presence of an undetermined parvovirus.
"This virus is widespread and has been affecting laboratory mice for 40 years or more, and we have good reason to suspect that wild and laboratory mice are inadvertently harboring them in their colonies," said Roediger.
However, "it was only with the advent of new DNA sequencing technologies that we were able to find it".
Roediger and his colleagues are now looking for ways to translate these findings into clinical practice to improve outcomes in patients with chronic renal failure.
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