NDT Advance Access originally published online on February 20, 2006
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2006 21(5):1184-1187; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfl016
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Coxsackie B viruses and the kidneya neglected topic
Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Inselspital, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 10, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Andreas Pasch, MD, Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Inselspital, University of Bern, Freiburgstrasse 10, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland. Email: andreas.pasch{at}insel.ch
Coxsackie B viruses types 16 (CVB16) occur worldwide and cause a broad spectrum of diseases, including myocarditis and aseptic meningitis. Although renal damage due to CVB has been suspected since the 1950s, these agents are only rarely searched for in today's clinical nephrological practice. Nevertheless, CVB can infect mesangial cells. Furthermore, infections with these viruses lead to a histological picture resembling mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis and IgA-nephropathy in mice. In the present article, we provide an overview of this largely neglected topic, and of the slowly and steadily increasing evidence suggesting a link between coxsackieviral infections and kidney diseases.
Keywords: coxsackievirus; CVB; enterovirus; mesangial; renal