Increased plasma levels of soluble CD27 among HIV/HCV co-infected and HIV/HCV/GBV-C triply infected subjects

ABSTRACT

CD27 is a biomarker associated with both T-cells and B-cells activation .Plasma soluble CD27 [sCD27] was identified as a marker of disease outcome in Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV] infection .Testing of plasma sCD27 represents a good tool to monitor the change of immune activation during HIV infection.We sought to analyses role of Hepatitis C Virus [HCV] and also GB Virus type C [GBV-C] co-infections on HIV-related immune activation, through measuring sCD27 plasma levels.Blood samples from a total of 86 patients with HIV infection were taken. Plasmas were analyzed for HCV using serologic test and GBV-C by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]. CD4+ and CD8+T-cell counts were evaluated by CD3/CD4+ and CD3/CD8+ double staining of whole blood followed by flow cytometric analysis .Then Cross-sectional comparison of sCD27 plasma levels was carried out among patients HIV [n=20], HIV/ GBV-C [n=14], HIV/ [HCV] [n=26] and HIV/HCV/GBV-C [n=26].Plasma level of sCD27 was higher in HIV/HCV/GBV-C patients as compared to HIV mono-infected patients [p= 0.006] and based on results there was significant differences in the plasma levels of sCD27 between HIV-infected individuals with and without HCV coinfection [P=0.017] and also correlation between sCD27 and percent of CD4+T-cells was in highest level among HIV/HCV co-infected patients group [r= -0.59 [p=0.001]]. High levels of sCD27 among HIV/HCV patients argues in favor of sCD27 plasma level determination for monitoring of clinical features among HIV/HCV coinfected patients