Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Feb 1;71(2):172-80.
doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000000832.

Impact of Hepatitis C Virus on the Circulating Levels of IL-7 in HIV-1 Coinfected Women

Jerome Kerzerho  1 , Elizabeth J McIlvaine, Patricia Anthony, Wendy J Mack, Chia-Hao Wang, Toni Frederick, Eva Operskalski, Zhi Chen, Lena Al-Harthi, Alan Landay, Mary A Young, Phyllis C Tien, Michael Augenbraun, Howard D Strickler, Omid Akbari, Elizabeth T Golub, Gerald B Sharp, Andrea Kovacs
Affiliations

Impact of Hepatitis C Virus on the Circulating Levels of IL-7 in HIV-1 Coinfected Women

Jerome Kerzerho et al. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. .

Abstract

Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection causes an alteration in T-cell maturation and activation in patients coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Because interleukin 7 (IL-7) is a major cytokine controlling T-cell homeostasis, we analyzed the potential influence of HCV coinfection on circulating IL-7 levels in HIV-infected women before and after highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

Design and methods: This prospective study included 56 HIV monoinfected, 55 HIV/HCV coinfected without HCV viremia, 132 HIV/HCV coinfected with HCV viremia, and 61 HIV/HCV-uninfected women for whom plasma levels of IL-7 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at 1 or more follow-up visits before and after HAART. Cross-sectional analyses of the associations between plasma IL-7 levels and HCV infection, demographic, clinical, and immunologic characteristics were evaluated using univariate and multivariate linear regression models before and after HAART.

Results: In multivariate models, IL-7 levels were significantly higher in coinfected HCV viremic women than in HIV monoinfected women (multiplicative effect = 1.48; 95% confidence interval: 1.01 to 2.16; P = 0.04) before HAART, but were similar between these two groups among women after HAART. In addition to HCV viremia, higher IL-7 levels were associated with older age (P = 0.02), lower CD4(+) T-cell count (P = 0.0007), and higher natural killer T-cell count (P = 0.02) in women before HAART. Among HAART-treated women, only lower CD4(+) T-cell count was significantly associated with IL-7 level (P = 0.006).

Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that in HIV-infected women, circulating levels of IL-7 are strongly associated with CD4 T-cell depletion both before and after HAART. Our data also demonstrate that HCV viremia increases circulating IL-7 levels before HAART but not after HAART in coinfected women. This suggests that the effect of HCV on lymphopenia is abrogated by HAART.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: none reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Comparison of IL-7 levels of 273 women at first measurement visit by HIV/HCV groups and HAART status
Plasma levels of IL-7 (pg/ml) were assessed by ELISA. P-values for group comparisons were obtained by Wilcoxon two sample tests.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Mackall CL, Fleisher TA, Brown MR, Andrich MP, Chen CC, Feuerstein IM, et al. Distinctions between CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell regenerative pathways result in prolonged T-cell subset imbalance after intensive chemotherapy. Blood. 1997;89:3700–3707. - PubMed
    1. Margolick JB, Munoz A, Donnenberg AD, Park LP, Galai N, Giorgi JV, et al. Failure of T-cell homeostasis preceding AIDS in HIV-1 infection. The Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study. Nat Med. 1995;1:674–680. - PubMed
    1. Mastroianni CM, Forcina G, d'Ettorre G, Lichtner M, Mengoni F, D'Agostino C, et al. Circulating levels of interleukin-7 in antiretroviral-naive and highly active antiretroviral therapy-treated HIV-infected patients. HIV Clin Trials. 2001;2:108–112. - PubMed
    1. A. V. HIV and co-infections in people who inject drugs. Geneva: WHO/Department HIV/AIDS; 2012. Available from. http://www.unaids.org/en/media/una.
    1. Anderson KB, Guest JL, Rimland D. Hepatitis C virus coinfection increases mortality in HIV-infected patients in the highly active antiretroviral therapy era: data from the HIV Atlanta VA Cohort Study. Clin Infect Dis. 2004;39:1507–1513. - PubMed

Publication types