Hepatitis E virus also attacks organs other than the liver, the study finds

A Bochum and Hannover research team shows that hepatitis E virus also attacks organs other than the liver.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes severe inflammation of the liver. A research team from Ruhr Bochum University, Germany and Twincore, the Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hannover, has managed to prove for the first time that it can also infect kidney cells and reproduce there. Antiviral drugs such as ribavirin are less effective than in the liver. The results of the study have now been published in Liver International on June 27, 2025.

The whole life cycle is strong in the kidney

Hepatitis E viruses mainly infect liver cells and cause most liver damage. “However, it was already known that the wrong path can go down and infect other cells, such as nerve cells,” says the latest author Dr. André Gömer from the Department of Molecular and Medical Iology at Ruhr Bochum University.

The team from Bochum and Hannover now has managed to prove in a cellular cultivation that viruses also infect the kidney cells and can multiply by their help. “The entire breeding cycle of the virus takes place in the kidney cells in the same way as in liver cells,” says Gömer.

Infected kidney cells responded less well to treatment with ribivirin of the drug than liver cells. “This is probably due to the important different metabolic profiles of the two organs,” says Gömer. In the kidney, the virus is therefore relatively non -sensitive to drug therapy.

“It could be that in chronic infections, the kidney acts as a tank from which viruses have spread again after a supposed successful treatment,” says Nele Meyer, a doctoral student at the TWincore research viral team. This and doctor Avista Wahid are the first authors of the study. Such a tank could also allow viruses to better adapt to treatment.

Evolution in the instrument

The group also conducted a comparative genetic analysis of hepatitis viruses from time infected patients using blood plasma, stool and urine. While the viruses are mainly secreted by the liver on the stool, those from the kidneys are in the urine. “The viruses found in the various samples differ significantly with each other,” says Dr. Patrick Behrendt, head of the Translation Viral Group on Twincore and also the latest author of the article. “This shows that the populations are growing independently of each other and have undergone some kind of evolution in the corresponding organ.”

Hepatitis E virus

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the main cause of acute viral hepatitis. After the first documented epidemic in 1955 to 1956, more than 50 years passed before the researchers began to focus intensively on the subject. Acute infections are usually cured in patients with intact immune system. In patients with reduced or oppressed immune system, such as organ transplant recipients or HIV contaminated patients, HEV may be chronic. HEV is also particularly dangerous for pregnant women.

Financing

The project was supported by the German Research Center for the infection, the Volkswagen Foundation, the German Research Foundation (398066876/GRK 2485/2 and 448974291) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Virbio Project, Funding Code: 01ki2106).