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Association of hypocholesterolaemia with hepatitis C virus infection in HIV‐infected people *
Author(s) -
Polgreen PM,
Fultz SL,
Justice AC,
Wagner JH,
Diekema DJ,
Rabeneck L,
Weissman S,
Stapleton JT
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
hiv medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.53
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1468-1293
pISSN - 1464-2662
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-1293.2004.00202.x
Subject(s) - medicine , hepatitis c virus , cholesterol , hepatitis c , antibody , immunology , gastroenterology , triglyceride , cohort , virus
Objective To study the impact of hepatitis C virus (HCV) status on serum cholesterol levels in HIV‐infected patients. Methods We retrospectively analysed data from the 881 participants of the Veterans Ageing Cohort 3 Site Study. Four different models were constructed using total cholesterol, low‐density lipid (LDL) cholesterol, high‐density lipid (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides as dependent variables. The relevant covariates included HCV antibody status, HIV medication class, CD4 count, HIV viral load, glucose level, lipid‐lowering drug use, gender, race, age, liver function test results, ethanol use, drug use, and HIV exposure category. Variables excluded from the final model included niacin use, gender, race, age, current ethanol use, and HIV exposure category. Results Of the 881 HIV‐positive patients enrolled in the study, 700 (79%) were screened for HCV antibody, with 300 (42.8%) HCV antibody positive and 400 (57.2%) HCV antibody negative. A positive HCV antibody status was independently associated with lower total cholesterol levels ( P= 0.001) and LDL cholesterol levels ( P <0.001) but not with lower HDL cholesterol or triglyceride levels. HCV‐positive patients had predicted LDL levels 19 mg/dL lower than those of HCV‐negative subjects. HCV infection was also associated with a decreased use of lipid‐lowering medication, and protease inhibitor use was associated with increased LDL and total cholesterol levels. Conclusions HCV infection has been associated with lower cholesterol levels in HIV‐negative individuals, and the same appears to be true with HIV‐infected patients. This is an interesting finding given that HCV particles bind to LDL receptors in vitro and also because HCV–lipid interactions appear to be important in the HCV replication cycle.