Friday 28 July is World Hepatitis Day as it does every year. Globally, approximately 2.3 million people living with HIV are co-infected with HCV, the majority of whom develop chronic HCV infection.
A team at the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) has long been studying co-infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and has published an article in the journal Journal of Medical Virology An article reveals new data on the risk of accelerated cellular aging in people co-infected with two infections.
The first author of the study is Violeta Lara, led by Amanda Fernández and Verónica Briz, both researchers at the ISCIII National Center for Microbiology, in collaboration with five public hospitals in the Autonomous Region of Madrid.
The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of HCV infection in HIV-infected individuals, either immediately after HCV spontaneous elimination or chronically during the persistence of this infection.
Oxidative stress and replicative senescence
To this end, the authors assessed various biomarkers associated with oxidative stress and replicative senescence and analyzed senescence-associated soluble molecules with the goal of facilitating the identification of patients at risk for diseases associated with premature cellular senescence, thereby predicting the risk of Possible therapeutic interventions for HIV-infected persons receiving antiretroviral drug therapy.
Cellular senescence is one of the mechanisms by which cells must interrupt their proliferation and development in the face of injury, possibly due to infection. Thus, viral infection can induce senescence, as can HCV and HIV infection.
Approximately 2.3 million HIV-infected individuals worldwide are co-infected with HCV, the majority of whom develop chronic HCV infection; said co-infection produces premature cellular senescence induced by both viruses and is characterized by oxidative stress Increase and emergence of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP).
In previous studies, teams led by Amanda Fernández and Verónica Briz have analyzed the use of antivirals in HIV-infected patients with a history of spontaneous resolution of hepatitis C. How these markers of cellular senescence evolve after HCV elimination following the drug.
chronic biomarkers
The work, now published, yields new data describing how effectively HIV-infected individuals and those who are able to spontaneously eliminate HCV are able to control virus-induced cellular senescence, compared to HIV-infected individuals who are not infected with HCV Reduce or even maintain a low level of aging.
Digging deeper into the immune dominance of this group of people, allowing them to successfully control infection and cellular senescence, may open the door to new treatments.
In addition, the study analyzed the effect of chronic HCV infection, demonstrating that chronicity of infection was associated with higher concentrations of nitrate and different factors associated with SASP such as interleukin-1α (IL-1α), compared with HIV controls , IFN-γ-induced protein 10 (IP-10) and placental growth factor 1 (PIGF-1).
Changes detected in patients with hepatitis C and HIV
These data reveal how chronic HCV infection in HIV-infected individuals induces oxidative and immune cell changes that favor the establishment of HCV persistence; these changes may increase the risk of aging-associated pathology, highlighting the The need to mitigate the impact of HCV in these patients.
The results of this study complement those achieved in recent years by research teams led by Amanda Fernández and Verónica Briz, whose work revealed, among other things, , Elimination of HCV in HIV-infected individuals leaves behind “sequel” cells, defining oxidative stress and other disease risks; direct-acting antivirals that kill HCV do not reduce the viral reservoir or genetic recombination of the virus, This may complicate the treatment of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection, and various microRNAs define distinct features of HCV and HIV co-infection.
article reference:
Lara-Aguilar, V, Crespo-Bermejo, C, Llamas-Adán, M, et al. Among long-term ART-treated HIV-infected individuals, HCV-spontaneous clearance exhibited lower senescence characteristics. J Med Virol. 2023;95:e28955. doi: 10.1002/jmv.28955. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.28955?af=R.