COVID-19 in kidney transplant recipients: what have we learned after 18 months of pandemic?

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) has profoundly impacted transplant activity in our country. As immunocompromised hosts with common comorbidities, kidney transplant (KT) recipients were expected to have higher mortality and risk of complications associated to COVID-19 compared to the overall population. The available experience at the beginning of the pandemic, however, was very limited. Since March 2020 our knowledge on the epidemiology, clinical features and management of post-transplant COVID-19 has rapidly evolved. The present review is aimed at summarizing the information generated by July 2021 to answer a number of relevant questions: How does SARS-CoV-2 infection present in KT recipients? What are the prognostic factors? Does COVID-19 entail a worse prognosis in the setting of KT as compared to non-immunocompromised individuals? What are the antiviral agents currently available for KT recipients? What is the experience with the use of immunomodulatory therapies? And lastly, are mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines effective in this patient population? Despite notable advances achieved, we should still improve various aspects of our approach to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the specific setting of KT.