Detection and Prevalence of Polyoma Virus BK among Iranian Kidney Transplant Patients by a Novel Nested-PCR

Background: BK virus is an increasingly recognized pathogen in transplant recipient patients associated with nephropathy and emerged as a cause of allograft failure linked to immunosuppressive regimens in renal transplant recipients. This study develops a sensitive PCR method to detect the viremia and viruria as well as the incidence of BK virus infection in renal transplant recipients. Methods: A nested PCR method was developed and a total of 45 paired serum and urine samples from renal transplant recipient patients were collected and tested with the developed assay. Results: The threshold of the developed detection assay was 10 copies/μl of BKV DNA in samples. Our results also indicated that about 40% of the urine and 26.7% of serum samples were positive for BKV in renal transplant patients in this study. Conclusion: This Nested-PCR method was found a specific, sensitive and simple procedure for detection of viruria and viremia of BK virus in renal transplant recipients.