Hepatitis G virus (HGV) RNA prevalence in HCV- infected haemophilic patients with or without HIV infection.

MASSUD I; CORTI M; DARUICH J; DE TEZANOS PINTO M; PÉREZ BIANCO R; PICCHIO G; BARÉ P

París, Francia

Simposio; 8th Symposium on hepatitis C virus and related viruses; 2001

The clinical significance of HGV infection is still unclear, in particular in the context of HCV and/or HIV infections. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of HGV-RNA in a group of HCV-positive haemophilic patients with, or without HIV co-infection, and its relation with the use of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). Plasma samples from 73 HCV RNA-positive haemophilic patients (43 HIV-positive, and 30 HIV-negative) were tested for the presence of HGV-RNA by RT-PCR using primers from the NS5b region. Viral load determinations for HIV and HCV were performed with the Amplicor Monitor test (Roche Diagnostics). None of the patients studied were under IFN-alfa treatment, while all but 3 HIV-positive ones were receiving HAART at the time of sample collection. Among HIV-negative patients, 8 (26.7%) were positive for HGV-RNA, while only 5 (11.6%) resulted positive among HIV-positive individuals. Although the difference observed between both groups did not reach statistical significance (P>0.05), it is puzzling that HGV viremia was less prevalent among HIV-positive patients. Interestingly, 4/5 HGV RNA –positive/HIV-positive cases corresponded to patients not receiving anti-retroviral regimens (n=3), or with poor adherence (n=1). These patients had a mean HIV viral load of 6310 copies RNA/ml. On the contrary, we found no correlation between HGV viremia, and levels of HCV-RNA. Our results suggest that HAART may have some impact on HGV replication in vivo. Additional samples are currently being tested to confirm this preliminary observation.