Bacterial pathogens associated with severity of HCV infection

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious pathogen with epidemic ≥ 170 millions and Egypt considered the highest,while immunocompromised chronic HCV patients suffer from serious microbial infections especially bacteria. Aim: investigationof common bacterial infections in patients with chronic HCV in Egypt and its association with HCV severity. Methods: Thisclinical study was conducted on chronic HCV patients and healthy individuals, while urine and blood samples were collectedunder optimized conditions. Bacteria were isolated from urine samples and identified using VETIK2 system. Flow cytometry wasused for CD56+ and CD3+ levels detection. Alanine/Aspartate aminotransferase (ALT, AST) levels were detected biochemically,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for diacylglycerol acyltransferase-1 (DGAT1) level detection and HCVPCR was performed for viral load detection. The results: showed that Staphylococcus lentus, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiellapneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Eschirechia coli were the common bacterial infections. The slight reduction inCD3+and CD56+ levels were coincident with the increase of Alt, AST and DGAT1 levels as patients suffered from high HCVload. Conclusion: HCV patients are immunocompromised and suffer from serious secondary bacterial infections which increasedthe severity of HCV infection.