Up to 25% of patients' COVID-19 cases involve acute kidney injury—the kidneys' equivalent of a heart attack. Clinicians have suspected that such injuries are a side effect of the immune system's sudden release of inflammatory proteins, cytokines, to battle the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The "cytokine storms" are known to damage tissues and organs.

New research, however, demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2 can directly invade human kidney cells - specifically the proximal tubules, which are major gatekeepers in the organs' waste-filtering function.

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