This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Furione, M.
Right arrow Articles by Mondelli, M. U.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Furione, M.
Right arrow Articles by Mondelli, M. U.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2004, p. 3012-3016, Vol. 42, No. 7
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.7.3012-3016.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Dissociation of Serum and Liver Hepatitis C Virus RNA Levels in Patients Coinfected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Treated with Antiretroviral Drugs

Milena Furione,1 Renato Maserati,2 Marta Gatti,1 Fausto Baldanti,1,3 Agostino Cividini,2,3 Raffaele Bruno,4 Giuseppe Gerna,1 and Mario U. Mondelli2,3*

Servizio di Virologia,1 Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive,2 Laboratori di Ricerca—Area Infettivologica,3 Divisione di Malattie Infettive e Tropicali, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo and Università degli Studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italy4

Received 23 September 2003/ Returned for modification 14 January 2004/ Accepted 8 April 2004

We examined hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels in serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and the liver for 135 patients with chronic HCV infections, 44 of whom were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive and treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (group A), 66 of whom were HIV negative (group B), with abnormal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) values, and 25 of whom were HIV negative, with ALT values of ≤1.5 times the normal value (group C). Patients had not been treated with interferon, with or without ribavirin, at the time of the study. A statistically significant correlation between HCV RNA levels in the liver and serum was reproducibly documented, whereas this was inconsistent for serum and PBMC. A comparative evaluation of HCV RNA levels in the liver and PBMC showed significantly lower values for group A than for groups B and C (P < 0.01 and P < 0.0001, respectively). In contrast, HCV RNA levels in serum were significantly higher for group A than for group B (P < 0.001). A dissociation between HCV RNA levels in serum and the liver was found for patients with HIV-HCV coinfections. Although the relative contribution of extrahepatic reservoirs, including lymphoid cells, to HCV RNA levels in serum is unclear, it may be speculated that a low intrahepatic HCV burden is caused by restored immunocompetence after successful antiretroviral therapy in coinfected patients.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratori di Ricerca, Area Infettivologica, IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, via Taramelli 5, 27100 Pavia, Italy. Phone: 39 0382 502639. Fax: 39 0382 526450. E-mail: m.mondelli{at}smatteo.pv.it.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2004, p. 3012-3016, Vol. 42, No. 7
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.7.3012-3016.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»