School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations

Co-Infection With Hepatitis C Virus Enhances Premature Aging In HIV Patients

Poster Number

255

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

3-2016

Abstract

Premature aging in HIV patients has become a major concern that compromises the lifespan of HIV patients. Several factors play a role in accelerating aging in HIV patients. Enhanced inflammation has been proposed to be the main factor that augments aging. In developed world, HCV co-infection is quite common in HIV patients. HCV infection is known to upregulate the expression of various pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, we hypothesized that co-infection with HCV could also be an important factor that augments aging in HIV patients. In order to examine the influence of HCV infection on aging in HIV co-infected patients, we analyzed 60 subjects aged from 45 to 60 belonged to four different groups--normal, HIV infected, HCV infected and HIV/HCV co-infected. The plasma samples from the four groups were used to assess the cytokine profile while PBMC samples were subjected to telomerase enzyme activity analysis. The cytokine profile showed increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IP10 and sCD163 in HCV-infected patients, who are infected either alone or co-infected with HIV. Interestingly, the HCV-infected and HIV/HCV co-infected groups exhibit less telomerase activity than the HIV-infected group. In summary, our preliminary results support our hypothesis and suggest that HCV co-infection accelerates aging process in HIV patients.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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Presented at: GW Research Days 2016

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Co-Infection With Hepatitis C Virus Enhances Premature Aging In HIV Patients

Premature aging in HIV patients has become a major concern that compromises the lifespan of HIV patients. Several factors play a role in accelerating aging in HIV patients. Enhanced inflammation has been proposed to be the main factor that augments aging. In developed world, HCV co-infection is quite common in HIV patients. HCV infection is known to upregulate the expression of various pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, we hypothesized that co-infection with HCV could also be an important factor that augments aging in HIV patients. In order to examine the influence of HCV infection on aging in HIV co-infected patients, we analyzed 60 subjects aged from 45 to 60 belonged to four different groups--normal, HIV infected, HCV infected and HIV/HCV co-infected. The plasma samples from the four groups were used to assess the cytokine profile while PBMC samples were subjected to telomerase enzyme activity analysis. The cytokine profile showed increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IP10 and sCD163 in HCV-infected patients, who are infected either alone or co-infected with HIV. Interestingly, the HCV-infected and HIV/HCV co-infected groups exhibit less telomerase activity than the HIV-infected group. In summary, our preliminary results support our hypothesis and suggest that HCV co-infection accelerates aging process in HIV patients.