Neutralizing Antibodies Targeting BK Polyomavirus

The majority of the world’s adult population is latently infected by the BK polyomavirus. It causes asymptomatic infection in healthy individuals but emerged as a threat to kidney transplant recipients because of virus associated nephropathy caused by immunosuppressive therapy. In these conditions, when a functional cellular response is impaired by immunosuppression, neutralizing antibodies may play a major role, since they can directly prevent infection of target cells, independently of cell mediated immunity, by binding to the viral particles. Studying the contribution of anti-BK virus neutralizing antibodies in viral control has long been hampered by the lack of convenient in vitro models but major progress has been made in the last decade. The four BK virus genotypes have been demonstrated to behave as distinct serotypes. A low recipient neutralizing antibody titer against the donor’s serotype before kidney transplant has been significantly associated with BK virus replication after transplant. Different mechanisms exploited by the BK virus to evade neutralizing antibodies have been described. Recent studies also support the potential benefit of administering intravenous immunoglobulins or monoclonal neutralizing antibodies as a therapeutic strategy and, more interestingly, this could also be used as preventive or pre-emptive therapy, before advanced kidney damage has occurred. Besides, neutralizing antibodies could be induced by vaccination. In this review, we summarize accumulated knowledge on anti-BK virus neutralizing antibodies as well as their clinical importance and therapeutic potential for kidney transplant recipients.