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The effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy for HIV on the anti‐HCV specific humoral immune response
Author(s) -
HerreroMartínez Esteban,
Sabin Caroline A.,
Lee Christine A.,
Jones Ian M.,
Pillay Deenan,
Emery Vincent C.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.10578
Subject(s) - antibody , virology , immune system , immunology , titer , lentivirus , medicine , rna , hepatitis c virus , viral disease , virus , biology , biochemistry , gene
The effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on HCV replication is controversial, with some studies reporting no effect and others increases, reductions and even clearances of HCV RNA after treatment. In this study, the effect of HAART was investigated on the titre of anti‐HCV specific antibodies and on the relationship between these antibodies and HCV RNA level in a cohort of 24 patients with inherited bleeding disorders. A significant inverse correlation between antibodies to both total HCV proteins and HCV RNA (R = −0.42, P = 0.05) and between antibodies to HCV envelope glycoproteins and HCV RNA (R = −0.54, P = 0.01) was observed pre‐HAART. The relationship disappeared or was obscured after therapy (R = 0.24, P = 0.30 and R = 0.16, P = 0.50, respectively). Thus, we show that HAART affects the HCV specific humoral immune responses without affecting the HCV RNA level. J. Med. Virol. 72:187–193, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.