A Comprehensive Analysis of the Impact of HIV on HCV Immune Responses and Its Association with Liver Disease Progression in a Unique Plasma Donor Cohort

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 7; p. e0158037
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yong-Hong, Zhao, Yan, Rajapaksa, Ushani S, Lawrence, Tessa M, Peng, Yan-Chun, Liu, Jinghua, Xu, Keyi, Hu, Ke, Qin, Ling, Liu, Ning, Sun, Huanqin, Yan, Hui-Ping, Repapi, Emmanouela, Rowland-Jones, Sarah, Thimme, Robert, McKeating, Jane A, Dong, Tao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 25.07.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Adult; Aged; AIDS; Analysis; Antibodies, Neutralizing - immunology; Antiretroviral drugs; Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; Antiviral agents; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Blood Donors; Care and treatment; CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; China - epidemiology; Coinfection; Complications and side effects; Departments; Development and progression; Disease control; Disease Progression; Female; Fibrosis; Health aspects; Hepacivirus - genetics; Hepacivirus - immunology; Hepatitis; Hepatitis C; Hepatitis C - complications; Hepatitis C - epidemiology; Hepatitis C - immunology; Hepatitis C - virology; Hepatitis C Antibodies - immunology; Hepatitis C virus; HIV; HIV infections; HIV Infections - complications; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - immunology; HIV Infections - virology; HIV-1 - genetics; HIV-1 - immunology; Hospitals; Human immunodeficiency virus; Human immunodeficiency virus 1; Humans; Immune response; Immunity; Immunology; Impact analysis; Infections; Infectious diseases; Injury prevention; Interferon-gamma - biosynthesis; Laboratories; Lentivirus; Liver; Liver Cirrhosis - epidemiology; Liver Cirrhosis - etiology; Liver Cirrhosis - pathology; Liver diseases; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Morbidity; Pan troglodytes; Patients; Population genetics; Population studies; Research and Analysis Methods; Retroviridae; Ribonucleic acid; Risk factors; RNA; T cell receptors; T-Cell Antigen Receptor Specificity - immunology; T-Lymphocyte Subsets - immunology; T-Lymphocyte Subsets - metabolism; Viral Load; Virology; Virus Replication; Viruses; Beijing China; United States > US; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158037

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection is recognized as a major cause of morbidity and mortality among HIV-1 infected patients. Our understanding of the impact of HIV infection on HCV specific immune responses and liver disease outcome is limited by the heterogeneous study populations with genetically diverse infecting viruses, varying duration of infection and anti-viral treatment. Viral-specific immune responses in a cohort of 151 HCV mono- and HIV co-infected former plasma donors infected with a narrow source of virus were studied. HCV and HIV specific T cell responses were correlated with clinical data. HIV-1 accelerated liver disease progression and decreased HCV specific T cell immunity. The magnitude of HCV specific T cell responses inversely correlated with lower HCV RNA load and reduced liver injury as assessed by non-invasive markers of liver fibrosis. HIV co-infection reduced the frequency of HCV specific CD4+ T cells with no detectable effect on CD8+ T cells or neutralizing antibody levels. Our study highlights the impact of HIV co-infection on HCV specific CD4+ T cell responses in a unique cohort of patients for both HCV and HIV and suggests a crucial role for these cells in controlling chronic HCV replication and liver disease progression.