Impaired Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)-Specific Interferon-γ Responses in Individuals With HIV Who Acquire HCV Infection: Correlation With CD4+ T-Cell Counts

Studies examining the effect of coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) on the HCV-specific immune response in acute HCV infection are limited. This study directly compared acute HCV-specific T-cell responses and cytokine profiles between 20 HIV/HCV-coinfected and 20 HCV-monoinfected subjects, enrolled in the Australian Trial in Acute Hepatitis C (ATAHC), using HCV peptide enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) and multiplex in vitro cytokine production assays. HIV/HCV coinfection had a detrimental effect on the HCV-specific cytokine production in acute HCV infection, particularly on HCV-specific interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production (magnitude P = .004; breadth P = .046), which correlated with peripheral CD4(+) T-cell counts (rho = 0.605; P = .005) but not with detectable HIV viremia (rho = 0.152; P = .534).