Effect of GBV-C/HIV coinfection on HIV/AIDS disease progression and HIV replication

• Published in: Bingdu xuebao Vol. 24; no. 1; p. 17
• Main Authors: Zhu, Ting, Ding, Xin-Ping, Wan, Yan-Min, Liu, Lian-Xing, Peng, Hong, Huang, Xiang-Gang, Feng, Yan-Meng, Wu, Chao, Ruan, Yu-Hua, Han, Li-Feng, Xing, Hui, Wang, Jian-Jun, Su, Bing, Xu, Chen, Xu, Jian-Qing, Shao, Yi-Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: China 01.01.2008
• Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - complications; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - immunology; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - virology; Adult; Aged; CD4 Lymphocyte Count; Disease Progression; Female; Flaviviridae Infections - immunology; Flaviviridae Infections - virology; GB virus C; Hepatitis, Viral, Human - immunology; Hepatitis, Viral, Human - virology; HIV-1 - physiology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; RNA, Viral - blood; Virus Replication
• ISSN: 1000-8721

Several research groups have recently reported that persistent GB virus C (GBV-C) co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) leads to slower AIDSs disease progression than HIV-1 infection alone. However, these findings were not confirmed by several other studies. To investigate the association between GBV-C replication and plasma HIV loads and CD4+ T cell counts, 203 HIV-1 positive former blood/plasma donors(FBDs) were enrolled from Fuyang city of Anhui Province in China. Plasma specimens were collected from them and were tested for GBV-C using RT-PCR and ELISA. Out of 203 specimens, 52 (25.6%) cases were positive for GBV-C, including 35 male (67.3%) and 17 female (32.7%) cases. No significant association was identified between GBV-C infection and CD4+ T-cell counts or between GBV-C infection and HIV viral loads. Since all the subjects studied were naive to ART, the influence of therapy on AIDS disease progression was ruled out in this study. Overall, our data indicated that HIV-1 positive male FBDs