Vitamin D deficiency is associated with severity of liver disease in HIV/HCV coinfected patients.

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of plasma 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels in HIV/HCV coinfected patients with severity of liver disease and virological response to hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapy with pegylated-interferon-alpha plus ribavirin (pegIFNα/RBV). METHODS: A cross-sectional study in 174 HIV/HCV coinfected patients that underwent a liver biopsy previously to start HCV therapy and a retrospective study of 125 of them. Plasma 25(OH)D levels were quantified by enzyme immunoassay. Liver biopsies were evaluated by METAVIR score. A sustained virological response (SVR) was defined as an undetectable serum HCV viral load (<10 IU/mL) up through 24 weeks after the end of HCV treatment. RESULTS: The median of plasma 25(OH)D level was 48 nmol/L (p25th: 32.5; p75th: 56.1) and 27 (15.5%) had 25(OH)D deficiency (<25 nmol/L). The percentage of 25(OH)D deficiency was higher in patients with significant fibrosis (F ≥ 2) (92.6% vs. 57.1%; p = 0.010) and moderate necroinflammatory activity grade (A ≥ 2) (85.2% vs. 60%; p = 0.043). However, adjusted logistic regression analyses showed that 25(OH)D deficiency was only associated with severity of liver disease [F ≥ 2 (OR = 8.47 (95% of confidence interval (CI) = 1.88; 38.3); p = 0.005) and A ≥ 2 (OR = 3.25 (95%CI = 1.06; 10.1); p = 0.040)]. Moreover, any significant relationship was found between 25(OH)D deficiency and SVR after HCV therapy. CONCLUSION: Plasma 25(OH)D deficiency was associated with liver disease severity in HIV/HCV coinfected patients, but it was not associated with HCV treatment failure.

Bacterial DNA translocation and liver disease severity among HIV-infected patients with chronic hepatitis C.

We carried out a cross-sectional study to explore whether bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA (bactDNA) shows association with severity of liver disease among human immunodeficiency virus/hepatitis C virus coinfected patients. Patients with advanced fibrosis (F3/F4), moderate activity grade (A2/A3), and high fibrosis progression rate (FPR > 0.15) had higher values of plasma bactDNA levels than did patients without these markers of liver disease (P < 0.05). The chance of having a fibrosis stage or activity grade increased was 1.20 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0 to 1.44, P = 0.045] and 1.22 (95% CI = 1.1 to 1.45, P = 0.029) times greater for every 100 copies per microliter of plasma bactDNA. Likewise, the odds of having values of FPR > 0.15 was 1.18 (95% CI = 0.98 to 1.42, P = 0.089). In addition, patients with high bactDNA levels (≥175 copies per microliter) had the highest odds of having high values of Metavir score and FPR (P < 0.05). Our data show that bacterial translocation is associated with severe liver disease among human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with chronic hepatitis C.

H5 influenza haemagglutinin and cytokine profilesin cultured PBMCs from adults and children

Objective: As reported by WHO in its most recent report, H5N1 influenza virus affects mostly children. Differences in morbidity depending on the age could be explained, at least in part, by the differences in the immune response between children and adults. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of H5N1 influenza haemagglutin in on the cytokine secretion profiles of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from both children and adult healthy donors. Materials and methods: We compared the profiles of 19 cytokines and chemokines released after exposure to PBMCs obtained from 30 healthy children and 30 healthy adults to a recombinant glycosylated H5 (..) (AU)

Objetivo: Informes recientes de la Organización Mundial de la salud demuestran que el virusgripal H5N1 afecta principalmente a (..) (AU)