03/21/2023
New data suggests kidney diseases with no known cause may be linked to viruses
Millions of people are affected by kidney disease each year. While some types are well understood, others aren’t as straightforward. Treatments for patients with these cases are often complicated and not always effective. Despite researchers’ best efforts, the root causes of many types of kidney disease remain unknown.
Asking the big questions
Leslie Bruggeman, PhD, Inflammation & Immunity, is tackling the problem through a new lens.
“Without knowing the root cause of kidney disease, doctors can only manage the symptoms and not the underlying problem,” Dr. Bruggeman says. “We want to answer the big questions as to what initially triggered the disease, which can ultimately help us develop more effective treatments.”
When people develop chronic kidney disease (CKD), their kidneys become damaged and over time may not clean the blood as well as healthy kidneys. If kidneys do not work well, toxic waste and extra fluid accumulate in the body and may lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and early death.
The Bruggeman Lab is analyzing existing repositories of genome-wide sequencing data from kidney biopsies. "These datasets are a comprehensive catalog of every gene expressed in the kidney, known as the transcriptome,” says Dr. Bruggeman, "but what many people don't realize is that these genome-wide datasets also hold a comprehensive catalog of every infectious agent or microbe present in the kidney." Focusing on these non-human sequences, or the metatranscriptome, the lab searched for infectious agents that associated with different kidney diseases. Their research was recently published in Kidney International.
Dr. Bruggeman and her team worked with the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network, known as NEPTUNE, a North American consortium that engages scientists from around the world to study the research samples provided by participants. John O’Toole, MD and John Sedor, MD, both leaders in the NEPTUNE Consortium, provided the diseased and healthy kidney biopsy datasets for the investigation. Nephrotic syndrome can be caused by several kidney diseases which are defined by the pattern of kidney injury (pathology) found in the kidney biopsy. NEPTUNE includes several CKDs in which the underlying cause is poorly understood, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), minimal change disease (MCD) and membranous nephropathy (MN).
