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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Veterinary and Zoonotic Infection
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1583006
This article is part of the Research TopicUnveiling Host-Pathogen Interactions: Insights into Animal Cellular Immunity and Novel Diagnostics - Volume IIView all articles
Hepatitis E virus infection and renal injury in non-immunocompromised host: clinical investigation and rabbit model study
Provisionally accepted
Weigang Zhang1Qiyu He2
Hao Wang3Wanyun Gong2Lei Qin1
Yunjie Lu1Yuting Wang4Wei Chen4Ling Wang2Wei He4
Lin Wang2*Yu Wang4- 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Peking University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- 4Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
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ABSTRACTBackground: Hepatitis E virus (HEV)-associated renal injury is mainly reported in immunocompromised patients. Here, we investigated HEV-associated renal injury in non-immunocompromised acute hepatitis E (AHE) patients and rabbits. Methods: Thirty-five non-immunocompromised AHE patients were tested for kidney function parameters and HEV markers. HEV3- and HEV4-infected rabbits were tested for alanine aminotransferase, creatinine (Cr) and HEV markers. HEV-associated renal injury and renal HEV replication were analyzed by histopathology and RT-qPCR.Results: Non-immunocompromised AHE patients all showed normal serum Cr, Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) and urine acid (UA). However, twenty-five percent of non-immunocompromised AHE patients showed proteinuria. In the rabbit model, HEV replication was observed in kidney tissues. HEV-infected rabbits showed transient elevated Cr level. Renal injury, including focal lymphocytic infiltration and tubular protein casts was observed in rabbits across acute, recovery and chronic phases of HEV infection.Conclusions: Proteinuria is not uncommon in non-immunocompromised AHE patients, indicating that HEV infection affects kidney. We further proved that HEV can cause renal injury in a rabbit model.
Keywords: Hepatitis E, Kidney, Clinical investigation, Rabbit model, HEV (Hepatitis E virus)
Received: 25 Feb 2025; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, He, Wang, Gong, Qin, Lu, Wang, Chen, Wang, He, Wang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lin Wang, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, Beijing Municipality, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.