Background

HTLV-1 often infect HIV-HCV coinfected patients. The immunological consequences of triple infection are still unclear. Objective: to compare the plasma levels of 25 different cytokines in patients infected by HIV and HCV, according to their serological status to HTLV-1 infection.

Methods

We used the LUMINEX 100/200 analyzer to compare the plasma levels of 25 different cytokines for patients coinfected by HCV and HIV (N=15), or by HTLV-1, HCV and HIV(N=18, 3 of them spontaneously cleared HCV).

Results

We detected a significant increase in median plasma levels of 6 different cytokines (Table 1) for patients coinfected by HTLV-1.Only the 3 patients with HCV spontaneous clearance showed detectable levels of IL-15 (p=0.06). Levels of remaining 18 cytokines were similar for all groups.

Table 1
Full size table

Conclusions

Infection by HTLV-1, in HIV-HCV coinfected patients, seems to induce a greater release of pro-inflamatory cytokines. This can be associated with a higher rate of HCV spontaneous clearance.