Beneficial Effect of GB Virus C Co‐Infection in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1‐Infected Individuals

Abstract

Several reports have documented a better prognosis for HIV‐1‐infected patients co‐infected with GBV‐C, while other reports have contradicted such findings with the result that this issue remains controversial. We attempted to clarify the complicated status of the effect of GBV‐C co‐infection on HIV‐1‐infected patients. GBV‐C RNA was detected in 37 samples in 182 HIV‐1‐infected patients (20.3%) using RT/nested PCR. Of these, 3 were determined to be GBV‐C genotype 1, 12 were genotype 2, and the remaining 22 were genotype 3. The GBV‐C viral load quantified by real‐time PCR ranged from 7.8 × 103 to 3.3 × 106 copies/ml. Weakly negative correlation was observed between GBV‐C viral load and HIV‐1 viral load in 19 HAART‐naïve patients, indicating that a higher GBV‐C viral load is associated with a greater suppression of HIV‐1 replication. A previously published in vitro study suggested that GBV‐C infection would induce up‐regulation of RANTES, leading to suppression of HIV‐1 replication. However, in our present study, the blood RANTES level was significantly lower in the GBV‐C co‐infected group than in the uninfected group (190–9,959 vs. 264–31,038 pg/ml, P=0.004). Our results suggested that a suppression of HIV‐1 replication by GBV‐C co‐infection is not mediated by up‐regulated RANTES, and thus call for another as yet unknown factor.

HIV-1 and GBV-C co-infection in Venezuela

“…This in vitro observation was not corroborated in the present study. Instead, RANTES and TNF-α levels were frequently lower in HIV-1 + GBV-C + co-infected patients compared to HIV-1 + GBV-C -individuals, similar to a report by Hattori et al [8], who found lower RANTES levels in HIV-1 + GBV-C+ co-infected patients compared to non-coinfected HIV-1 patients. Interestingly, GBV-C coinfection appeared to restore leptin levels in HIV-1-infected patients (Figure 1).…”

“…In his study, a significant reduction in the mean HIV-1 load was observed in GBV-C co-infected patients, without differences in CD4 + cell counts (Table 2). A negative correlation between plasma GBV-C and HIV-1 load has been reported [8]; however, this aspect was not evaluated in the current study.…”

“…In vitro GBV-C infection increases the production of certain chemokines such as RANTES, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, MIP-1β, and SDF-1, while it reduces CCR5 expression on the cell surfaces [7]. In vivo, contradictory results have shown higher [7] or lower [8] levels of RANTES in HIV-1 + GBV-C + co-infected patients compared to nonco-infected individuals. Nevertheless, some of these factors have been shown to reduce susceptibility to HIV-1 infection [9].…”

Human pegivirus isolates characterized by deep sequencing from hepatitis C virus‐RNA and human immunodeficiency virus‐RNA–positive blood donations, France

“…Despite a nonnegligible blood prevalence in healthy persons, that is 1% to 5% in developed countries and up to 20% in developing countries, and higher values in immunocompromised patients, both natural history and potential implication of pegiviruses in host’s health are largely unknown despite their identification more than 20 years ago . Of note, however, human immunodeficiency (HIV)‐HPgV association studies were extensively explored, due to a possible beneficial effect in HIV infection motivating investigations about HIV‐HPgV interactions at the molecular level . Mechanisms of viral persistence and host‐immune modulation remain also poorly characterized .…”

The First Two Cases of Chronic Hepatitis Associated With Torque Teno Midi Virus (Ttmdv), Genus Gammatorquevirus

“…Также образцы сыворотки крови тестировали на GBV-C RNA (вируса, ранее известного под названием вирус гепатита G) методом ПЦР, совмещенной с обратной транскрипцией по протоколу, описанному J. Hattori с соавт. [6].…”