Abstract
BackgroundThe measurement of hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCV-coreAg) has been shown to be an indicator of active HCV infection. The aim of the present study was 1) to investigate the stability and effectiveness of HCV-coreAg and HCV-RNA quantification in HCV infection with or without HIV-1 coinfection, 2) to explore the association between the HCV-coreAg/HCV-RNA (Ag/RNA) ratio and the immune status in chronic HCV/HIV-1-coinfected patients.MethodsA longitudinal investigation comprised of 227 HCV-monoinfected (n = 129) and HCV/HIV-1-coinfected (n = 98) patients was initiated in August 2009, and 139 (73 with HCV monoinfection and 66 with HCV/HIV-1 coinfection) were followed up in August 2012. Both HCV core antigen and HCV RNA quantification were determined on this cryopreserved plasma. HCV core antigen and HCV RNA quantification were performed subsequently. In addition, an in vitro experiment investigating the possibility of degradation of HCV components (core antigen and RNA) were conducted.ResultsSignificant and stable correlations (p < 0.001) were observed both in chronic HCV-monoinfected and HCV/HIV-1-coinfected patients over the 3-year observation. Coinfected patients with immunocompromised condition had a significantly higher (p < 0.05) Ag/RNA ratios than those patients with immunocompetent condition both at two time points (2009 and 2012). Moreover, the Ag/RNA ratios were negatively correlated with CD4+ T-cell counts (p < 0.001). An in vitro experiment investigated the possibility of the slower degradation of HCV particles under HIV-related immunocompromised condition was conducted and the data demonstrated that the Ag/RNA ratios were significantly higher in HIV-1-positive plasma than in healthy plasma (p = 0.005) in this study.ConclusionsOur longitudinal study indicated that the HCV-coreAg presented comparable dynamics over time as HCV RNA in chronic HCV-infected patients. Meanwhile, the HCV-coreAg/HCV-RNA ratio was closely associated with immune status in HCV/HIV-1-coinfected patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-014-0577-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The measurement of hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCV-coreAg) has been shown to be an indicator of active Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection
The concentration of HCV-coreAg was highly correlated with HCV-RNA levels in HCV-monoinfected and HCV/HIV1-coinfected patients over 3-year observation The present study confirmed that, in HCV-monoinfected patients, HCV-coreAg and HCV-RNA were significantly correlated at the two different time points (2009, HCV-1b: r = 0.802, p < 0.001, HCV-2a: r = 0.786, p < 0.001; 2012, HCV-1b: r = 0.919, p < 0.001, HCV-2a: r = 0.944, p < 0.001, Figure 2A)
Negative correlation between the ratios of HCV-coreAg to HCV-RNA and CD4+ T-cell counts in HCV/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-coinfected patients we explored the association between the ratio of the HCV-coreAg to the HCV-RNA (Ag/RNA) and immune status in HCV/HIV-1-coinfected patients
Summary
The measurement of hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCV-coreAg) has been shown to be an indicator of active HCV infection. Detection of HCVRNA by real-time RT-PCR requires skill, is timeconsuming, and is too expensive for primary hospitals, despite its merit in evaluating HCV replication [10,11] Another cheaper alternative in lieu of HCV-RNA detection is quantification of hepatitis C virus core antigen (HCV-coreAg). Our previous study [9] and others [12,13,14,15,16,17] have widely investigated the potential applicability of this strategy to the diagnosis of active HCV infection and monitoring of antiviral response, due to its correlation with RT-PCR, as well as its ease of automation Despite these advantages, the further improvement for the detection limit of HCV-coreAg assay is still highly desired [8]. The present report describes a 3-year longitudinal study to further investigate the stability and effectiveness of HCV-coreAg and HCV-RNA quantification in HCV infection with or without HIV-1 coinfection
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