Blood Cytomegalovirus Load is Directly Correlated with the Glomerular Filtration Rate in Patients with Native Kidneys

Introduction: Cytomegalovirus (CMV), a double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) virus belonging to the Herpesviridae family, is widely distributed worldwide, and in immunocompetent individuals, it causes moderate or asymptomatic infections.However, in individuals who are immunocompromised or have received a renal transplant, it is known to affect kidney function, namely by lowering glomerular filtration rate (GFR).Although CMV's effects on renal function in these susceptible populations are well established, nothing is known about how it affects GFR in otherwise healthy people.Aims and objectives: This study was intended to assess the association between the CMV viral load in the blood and GFR in immunocompetent, nontransplant individuals.Materials and methods: A total of 33 polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed CMV-infected individuals who were neither immunocompromised nor recipients of renal transplants were the subjects of a cross-sectional retrospective investigation.Serum creatinine, estimated GFR (eGFR), patient demographics, and CMV viral load (copies/mL) were all noted.True real-time PCR (TRUPCR) and QIAGEN DNA extraction kits were used to quantify CMV DNA.A VITROS 5600 analyzer was used to quantify serum creatinine using reflectance photometry, and eGFR was computed in accordance with the results.The computation of mean values, standard deviation, and Spearman correlation coefficients with matching p-values was all part of the statistical study.Results: The average GFR was 97.63 mL/min/1.73m, and the average CMV load was 82,394.72 copies/mL.Glomerular filtration rate and CMV load were shown to be significantly positively correlated ( = 0.39, p = 0.022).Age and GFR were shown to be significantly correlated negatively ( = -0.37,p = 0.027), as was predicted.Age and serum creatinine did not significantly correlate with CMV load.Conclusion: Greater GFR was linked to a greater CMV viral load in immunocompetent people.A compensatory physiological reaction to increased water production brought on by higher aerobic metabolism during viral replication might be the cause of this.