The epidemics of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections meet in individuals with parenteral exposure to blood, including injecting drug users (IDU) and persons with hemophilia, where rates of coinfection range from 60-90 percent. Coinfected individuals have a significantly increased risk of progression to end-stage liver disease, though mechanisms by which HIV modifies the course of HCV are poorly understood. It is paradoxical that HIV, an immunosuppressive state, leads to an accelerated progression of liver disease, and that HAART is associated with liver failure as well. Our central hypothesis is that both peripheral and intrahepatic HCV-specific cellular immune responses are qualitatively and quantitatively different in patients coinfected with HIV compared with those with HCV monoinfection, and that this is not solely a function of the degree of immunosuppression. Our goals are to determine whether coinfected individuals have an altered cellular immune response to HCV, to determine if immune reconstitution impacts HCV-specific cellular immunity, and if cellular immune responses to HCV are associated with improved outcome with anti-HCV therapy. To address these hypotheses we are examining HCV-specific cellular immune responses in three groups: 1) individuals with HCV/HIV versus HCV alone, 2) individuals with HIV/HCV prior to HAART and during immune reconstitution, and 3) individuals with HIV/HCV who are entering a protocol of interferon-ribavirin therapy. We are using ELISPOTS to characterize secretion of interferon-gamma, tumor necrosis factor alfa, and interleukin-10 at the single cell level in peripheral mononuclear cells and liver-infiltrating lymphocytes in these populations. We are complementing these functional assays with flow cytometry to phenotypically characterize lymphocyte populations. Determining alterations in cellular immune responses to HCV in individuals with HIV may help us to understand the pathophysiology underlying the accelerated progression of severe liver disease as well as help define subgroups of persons with HIV who may benefit from treatment of hepatitis C.
