BREAKING! Are Certain Newer SARS-CoV-2 Variants Causing A Rise In Chronic Kidney Disease And Kidney Failure In Countries Like Singapore And Thailand?

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is slowly evolving into an endemic of a silent killer disease as a result of governments and even health authorities trying to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 and are even concealing daily infections rates, death rates and now even excess death rates.


 
The ignorant masses are being led to assume that COVID-19 is now just a mild infection similar to contracting the influenza virus and unless you are in the vulnerable groups ie the obese, aged, young, immunocompromised and those with existing comorbidities, getting infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus is simply ok! All preventive measures and border controls have been done away with in many countries.
 
Many governments and health authorities around the world are even trying to downplay the seriousness of Long COVID and even in some instances deny it exists!
 
Researchers have not even been able to properly formulate proper protocols for Long COVID diagnosis let alone identify all the various contributing factors to the condition that is actually being labelled and even tackled from a misleading perspective.
 
We at Thailand Medical News strong believe that Long COVID has to be approached form a personalized medicine approach as besides viral persistence in various tissues and organs that needs to be properly identified, a total of more than 389 cellular pathways, gene and proteases being dysregulated and epigenetic changes can be caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, contributing to different manifestations seen in Long COVID.What can and may not happen in a person can differ to the next. To make things even more complicated, the type of variant that is play or caused the infection also plays a role in the diagnosis and treatment of Long COVID as it is now becoming clear that variants with specific mutations have different pathogenesis and exhibit different tropisms coupled the other types of human host receptors that are also being targeted beside the ACE2 receptor. (The SARS-CoV-2 virus can actually bind to more than 19 different human host receptors and the list is still growing! To make things even complex, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can also bind to a variety of critical human host proteases…disrupting key cellular pathways!)
 
Just in the last 6 months in the United States alone, after the Omicron surges involving the BA.1 and BA.2 variant , more than 68 different Omicron variants, sub-variants and recombinant have emerged and some already spreading and causing surges while some are even silently spreading as unknown to many, some of the current ATK test and RT-PCR testing platforms are unable to pick up some of these new variants or sub-variants!
https://cov-spectrum.org/collections/24?country=United+States&highlightedOnly=true
 
Interestingly in Singapore, a country that has the one of the highest vaccination and booster rates in the world (Note: We at Thailand Medical News strongly believe that vaccinations and also the various therapeutic monoclonal drugs being used and the also the various pharmaceutical drugs being used are also contributing factors to the virus evolution and the emergence of mutations!), has been witnessing an exponential rise in c hronic kidney disease and kidney failures in recent months.
 
According to a latest media coverage by Channel New Asia, Singapore is seeing at least 6 new cases of renal failure per day that requires dialysis!
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/nkf-kidney-failure-tsunami-dialysis-2936766
 
The number of individuals with being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease that has yet to require dialysis is also increasing exponentially in the country.
 
A similar situation is also being witnessed in Thailand although mainstream media, doctors and health authorities are refusing to admit the situation.
 
Some locally published studies and reports are however validating this rise of chronic kidney disease in Thailand.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-00694-9
 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666970621000263
 
https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/1/e007525
 
Numerous studies have already shown the SARS-CoV-2 infections can lead to kidney issues, chromic kidney disease and kidney failure.
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/university-of-queensland-study-warns-that-millions-of-sars-cov-2-infected-individuals-are-not-aware-that-they-may-have-undiagnosed-acute-kidney-injury
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/warning-covid-19-latest-researchers-warn-of-epidemic-of-post-covid-19-kidney-disease-and-study-shows-many-will-die-or-never-recover-from-aki
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/dutch-and-german-study-shows-that-sars-cov-2-directly-infects-the-kidneys-and-causes-tissue-scarring-which-ultimately-leads-to-kidney-damage-and-failu
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/university-of-washington-study-confirms-that-sars-cov-2-can-directly-invade-human-kidney-cells-causing-a-range-of-kidney-issues-including-acute-kidney
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-clinical-care-kidney-failure-emerging-as-a-common-occurrence-from-covid-19-infections
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/good-news-study-finds-that-most-recovered-covid-19-patients-even-with-mild-infections-will-ultimately-develop-virus-induced-kidney-damage
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/acute-kidney-injury-study-shows-that-acute-kidney-injury-(aki)-predominant-among-covid-19-patients
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/sars-cov-2-attacks-kidney-proximal-tubular-cells-causing-acute-fanconi-syndrome-according-to-french-study
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/more-great-news-even-those-that-initially-had-mild-covid-19-symptoms-can-develop-kidney-disease-as-part-of-many-manifestations-of-long-covid
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-study-latest-autopsy-study-by-imperial-college-london-shows-extensive-blood-clots,-massive-lung-and-kidney-injuries-along-with-new-findings
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/study-finds-that-covid-19-induced-acute-kidney-injury-similar-to-sepsis-caused-kidney-injury-and-that-mitochondrial-dysfunction-may-play-a-key-role
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-more-emerging-chinese-research-studies-shows-that-the-sars-cov-2-coronavirus-also-attacks-the-kidneys,-pancreas-and-liver
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-u-s-cdc-reports-high-incidences-of-kidney-failure,-clots,-diabetes-and-heart-issues-in-post-covid-children-and-teenagers
 
However, many stupid doctors in Singapore and Thailand are still refusing to acknowledge the association between SARS-CoV-2 infections and kidney injury and disease.
 
Thailand Medical News even goes further to hypothesize that certain of the newer Omicron variants and subvariants that made their debut in the last 6 months are displaying an enhanced tropism towards the kidneys and even other organs like the liver and also the human brain.
 
Although the ACE-2 receptor is found in certain parts of the kidneys, another receptor ie KIM1 has also been found to be able to bind with the SARS-CoV-2 virus
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33493263/
 
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.16.20190694v2.full
 
Also, studies are indicating that CD147 found in kidney podocytes are also targets of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.16.20190694v2.full
 
Thailand Medical News also speculates that the AXL receptors are upregulated in kidney tissues during cytokine surges and this in turn are targeted by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
 
Studies already show the upregulation of AXL receptors as a result of inflammation and studies also show AXL receptors being targets of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/12/1869/htm
 
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/hypertensionaha.113.01382
 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4647683/
 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7179907/
 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-00460-y
 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34159331/
 
https://www.annalsofoncology.org/article/S0923-7534(20)41796-X/fulltext
 
Now although, it is already proven that SARS-CoV-2 infections are causing an increase in acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease and kidney failure, Thailand Medical News further speculates that some of the newer Omicron variants such as BA.5.2 + orf1b:1050n, BA.5* + s:444, BA.5* + s:346 and BA.2.75.1 are all somewhat exhibiting kidney tropism and also are utilizing the KIM1, CD147 and AXL receptors more efficiently, hence causing more kidney damage while disarming the human host immune responses effectively, hence more mild-like conditions initially during infection but with longer term organ damage!
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Singapore/AllSamples/Past6M
 
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/Past6M
 
Detailed studies are warranted to validate our claims.
 
But in the meanwhile, doctor and physicians should also focus on screening those that might be more vulnerable to kidney issues upon SARS-CoV-2 infections.
 
For instance, American researchers from the University of Michigan have already identified one diagnostic test to identify a subset of potential individuals at such risk.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-diagnostics-researchers-uncover-new-protein-biomarker-supar-to-identify-covid-19-patients-at-risk-of-acute-kidney-injury-aki
 
Also, physicians should also explore newer protocols to treat SARS-CoV-2 induced kidney injury or damage fast before the condition deteriorates.
 
One study by researchers from the University of South Carolina-United States and  Central South University, Hunan-China has found that the spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus typically impairs the lipid metabolic and autophagic pathways in human host cells, leading to increased susceptibility to lipotoxicity via ferroptosis, which often results in the damage of cells and tissues of the heart, liver and kidneys.
 
Interestingly, the research also found that a Nrf2 inhibitor such as the phytochemical Trigonelline which is an alkaloid derived from Coffee, can be used to suppress this impairment of the lipid metabolic and autophagic pathways and susceptibility to lipotoxicity.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-sars-cov-2-impairs-lipid-metabolic-and-autophagic-pathways,-causing-damage-to-heart,-liver-and-kidneys-the-phytochemical-trigonelline-helps
 
Thailand Medical News is currently exploring phytochemicals extracted from herbs with nephroprotective properties such as  Alhagi maurorum, Tribulus terrestris, Mangifera indica, Prunus cerasus, Prangos acaulis, Abelmoschus manihot, Cordyceps sobolifera, Anrederea cordiforia, Paeonia lactiflora and  Vigna angularis to treat acute kidney injury caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
 
In fact, we have also isolated three interesting phytochemicals from two other herbal plants that we are not listing here due to our patenting processes that have showed remarkable efficacy in healing acute kidney injury caused by viral infections.

In coming months, acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease(CKD) and kidney failure are going to be a common occurence around the world along with heart failures, strokes and liver disease as more people get infected or reinfected with the various emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and sub-variants.
 
For more on SARS-C0V-2 and Kidney Failure, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.