Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) viral persistence in patients with spontaneous viral clearance is controversial. Several studies have shown HCV-RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and/or liver tissue among patients who have cleared the virus spontaneously, suggesting that viral persistence is a common situation that could involve the entire population studied. Thus, our aim was to evaluate HCV-RNA persistence in PBMCs and hepatocytes in subjects infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A total of 1508 patients were prospectively followed and tested for anti-HCV antibodies and HCV-RNA to identify the patients who achieved spontaneous viral clearance. In all of the patients, the persistence of HCV-RNA in PBMCs was evaluated longitudinally during 2 years of follow-up. Fifty-nine patients fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were included in the study. HCV-RNA was not detected in the PBMCs at baseline [59 PBMCs samples tested; 0 %; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 0–3.3 %] or during the follow-up (147 PBMCs samples tested; 0 %; 95 % CI: 0–2.02 %). Our study shows that HCV viral persistence is not a frequent occurrence in HIV-infected patients who have spontaneously resolved an HCV infection. Thus, the lack of serum HCV-RNA should continue to be addressed as the standard of healing.
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Acknowledgments
The study was funded by the Fundación Progreso y Salud, Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (grants for health research projects: refs. PI: 0036/2010; 0187/2013). J.A.P. received a Research Extension Grant from the Programa de Intensificación de la Actividad de Investigación del Servicio Nacional de Salud Español (I3SNS) and A.R. received a Research Extension Grant from the Consejería de Salud, Innovación y Ciencia de la Junta de Andalucía. A.R.-J. is the recipient of a post-doctoral perfection grant from the Consejería Igualdad, Salud y Políticas Sociales, Modalidad Doctores recientemente titulados (RH-0024-2013). The HEPAVIR research group is funded by Consejería de Igualdad, Salud y Políticas Sociales de la Junta de Andalucia (AC-0095-2013).
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The authors or their institutions did not receive payment or services from a third party for any aspect of the submitted work at any time (e.g., data monitoring board, study design, manuscript preparation, statistical analysis). The funding institutions had no influence on the design or performance of the study; on the collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or on the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.
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Rivero-Juarez, A., Caruz, A., Real, L.M. et al. Longitudinal evaluation of hepatitis C viral persistence in HIV-infected patients with spontaneous hepatitis C clearance. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 34, 2171–2175 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2463-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2463-1