New virus behind kidney disease discovered – The New Indian Express

By PTI

MELBOURNE: Scientists announced Friday that they have discovered a new viral strain, which could change the way chronic and childhood kidney disease is treated.

Researchers at the Centenary Institute in Australia have noted that some immunocompromised laboratory mice die in middle age, much earlier than expected.

A more in-depth study found that mice succumbed to kidney failure, according to the study published in the journal Cell.

Using advanced DNA sequencing technologies, scientists, including those at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the United States, were able to identify the cause in the form of a brand new parvovirus.

Parvoviruses are extremely small viruses that are usually benign except in immunocompromised individuals.

Researchers are currently looking for ways to translate these findings into clinical practice to improve outcomes in patients with chronic renal failure.

"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 Ben Roediger of the Centenary Institute.

The discovery of this new parvovirus strain has several important implications for human health, according to the researchers.

"This breakthrough provides new information on kidney disease of viral origin, which is a major problem in kidney transplant patients," said Roediger.

"The virus itself seems to be very specific to the kidney, which means we can potentially exploit its surface protein (" capsid ") to develop gene therapies against hereditary infantile kidney disease," he said.