HCV QUASISPECIES COMPLEXITY AND SELECTION IN HCV/HIV COINFECTED SUBJECTS TREATED WITH INTERFERON-BASED REGIMENS

摘要

HCV/HIV coinfection has emerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality due to liver disease. Interferon-based therapy response rates have been disappointingly low. Baseline HCV complexity and the relationship between complexity and viral kinetic parameters has not been well described in HCV/HIV subjects. A subset of patients enrolled in ACTG 5071 underwent sampling to evaluate viral kinetics and HCV complexity changes. Early kinetic parameters, baseline complexity, and treatment outcomes, including rapid (RVR), early (EVR), and sustained (SVR) viral response were evaluated. HCV monoinfected subjects were matched to HCV/HIV coinfected subjects.RESULTSBaseline complexity was determined in 108 HCV/HIV coinfected subjects and 13 HCV controls. Quasispecies complexity was 2.24 in HCV/HIV and 1.90 in monoinfected subjects (p=0.14). Lower baseline complexity was associated with EVR (p=0.04) and approached significance for SVR. In patients who underwent viral kinetic modeling, complexity decrease was associated with RVR (p= 0.03), and was independent of the correlation between first phase viral decline efficiency and RVR.