Prevalence and Clinical Impact of Human Pegivirus-1 Infection in HIV-1-Infected Individuals in Yunnan, China.

Zhijiang Miao,Li Gao,Xicheng Wang,Xueshan Xia,Ming Yang,Jincheng Lou,Yue Feng,Mi Zhang,Yindi Song,Xingqi Dong,Yue Zhao

doi:10.3390/v9020028

Abstract

Human Pegivirus-1 (HPgV-1) may have a beneficial impact on disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection. However, analysis of the genotypic diversity of HPgV-1 and its relevance to the progression of HIV-1 disease remains limited. A total of 1062 HIV-1-infected individuals were recruited in all sixteen prefectures of Yunnan province, China. The reverse transcription nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR), phylogenetic analyses, and clinical data analyses were used to detect HPgV-1 infection, determine genotype, and analyze HPgV-1 genotype impact on HIV-1 disease progression. The overall positive rate of HPgV-1 RNA was 23.4% (248/1062), and the frequency of HPgV-1 infection in injecting drug users (IDUs) (28.5%, 131/460) was significantly higher than in heterosexuals (19.4%, 117/602). Multiple genotypes were identified in 212 subjects with successful sequencing for the E2 gene, including genotype 7 (55.7%), genotype 3 (34.9%), genotype 4 (4.7%), genotype 2 (3.3%), and an unclassified group (1.4%). Moreover, genotype 7 predominated in IDUs, whereas genotype 3 was the most common in heterosexuals. Our results revealed that HPgV-1 genotype 7 groups exhibited significantly lower HIV-1 viral load and higher CD4+ cell counts. This finding suggests that HPgV-1 genotype 7 may be associated with a better progression of HIV-1 disease.

Highlights

Human pegivirus-1 (HPgV-1), known as GB virus C (GBV-C) or hepatitis G virus (HGV), is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that has recently been classified under the Pegivirus genus of the Flaviviridae family [1,2,3,4]
Blood samples were collected from a total of 1062 human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1)-positive individuals from all 16 prefectures of the Yunnan province, from August 2011 to August 2015
Cell counts (Group 1: cells/μL = 332 ± 204 vs. 280 ± 148, p = 0.037; Group 2: 341 ± 164 vs. 288 ± 154, p = 0.015, respectively) compared with the HPgV-1 negative group (p < 0.05) (Table 2). These findings suggest that infection with HPgV-1 genotype 7 may be associated with slower disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-positive individuals

Summary

Introduction

Human pegivirus-1 (HPgV-1), known as GB virus C (GBV-C) or hepatitis G virus (HGV), is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) virus that has recently been classified under the Pegivirus (pe, persistent; g, GB or G) genus of the Flaviviridae family [1,2,3,4]. Seven HPgV-1 genotypes have been identified by phylogenetic analysis of the full-length and partial regions of the genome 50 untranslated region (50 -UTR) and envelope protein 2 (E2) [6]. It has been reported that up to 40% of HCV- and/or HIV-1-infected patients are HPgV-1 positive [10,11]. Consistent with these findings, our previous study revealed that 35.8%

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