Increased proportions of dendritic cells and recovery of IFNγ responses in HIV/HCV co-infected patients receiving ART.

Dendritic cell (DC) numbers and functions can be affected by HIV and HCV disease, but the effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on DC and the implications of these changes are unclear. We examined circulating DC in samples from Indonesian patients beginning ART with advanced HIV disease and documented mild/moderate HCV hepatitis. Frequencies of myeloid and plasmacytoid DC increased after 6 months on ART, but frequencies of DC producing IL-12 or IFNα following stimulation with TLR agonists (CL075, CpG) did not change. IFNγ responses to CL075, HCV and other antigens rose over this period. Hence increased IFNγ responses during ART may be associated with increased DC frequencies rather than changes in their functional capacity.

Patients co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus recover genotype cross-reactive neutralising antibodies to HCV during antiretroviral therapy.

When severely immunodeficient HIV/HCV co-infected patients are treated with antiretroviral therapy, it is important to know whether HCV-specific antibody responses recover and whether antibody profiles predict the occurrence of HCV-associated immune restoration disease (IRD). In 50 HIV/HCV co-infected patients, we found that antibody reactivity and titres of neutralising antibodies (nAb) to JFH-1 (HCV genotype 2a virus) increased over 48 weeks of therapy. Development of HCV IRD was associated with elevated reactivity to JFH-1 before and during the first 12 weeks of therapy. Individual analyses of HCV IRD and non-HCV IRD patients revealed a lack of an association between nAb responses and HCV viral loads. These results showed that increased HCV-specific antibody levels during therapy were associated with CD4(+) T-cell recovery. Whilst genotype cross-reactive antibody responses may identify co-infected patients at risk of developing HCV IRD, neutralising antibodies to JFH-1 were not involved in suppression of HCV replication during therapy.

Periportal CD4+ cell infiltration increases in HIV/hepatitis C virus-coinfected patients commencing ART, whereas CD8+ cells clear from the liver.

Coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) is common in Asia, but the effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART) are unclear. Histopathological changes in the liver are described in a prospective study of HCV-seropositive HIV-infected patients at Cipto Mangunkusomo Hospital (Jakarta, Indonesia). Liver biopsy specimens were collected at baseline (n = 48) and 48 weeks (n = 34). Ishak scores showed mild but detectable inflammation and/or fibrosis. Levels of portal inflammation declined during ART (P = .03), whereas fibrosis remained (P = .11). Portal infiltration of CD4(+) cells increased during ART (P < .0001), whereas infiltration of CD8(+) cells subsided. Numbers of CD4(+) cells in the liver at baseline correlated with circulating CD4(+) T-cell counts (P = .03-.05). Numbers of liver-infiltrating CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells at baseline were not associates with subsequent experience of an immune restoration disease, which is defined by a rise in alanine transaminase levels during ART.