Background: A third of HIV-infected patients are co-infected with HCV in the developed world, and more of co-infected patients than ever before are dying because of liver related diseases today. Drug-related hepatotoxicity is a growing concern among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) / hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infected population. Nucleotide analogues containing HIV antiretroviral therapy, namely highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), can induce mitochondrial toxicity. However, little is known about the effect of nucleotide analogues on the liver at the cellular and molecular level, and how it may affect treatment.
Objective: To investigate whether liver tissue from HIV/HCV co-infected individuals will show greater liver mitochondrial toxicity if currently receiving antiviral HIV medication, compared to those who are not taking it.
Methods: Liver biopsies were collected from 23 HIV/HCV co-infected males. Fourteen patients were on stable HAART (ON-HAART) and 9 were OFF-HAART, including 4 who stopped HAART >6 months prior and 5 who were HAART-nave. Liver mitochondrial toxicity was assessed by transmission electron microscopy-based quantitative stereological analyses of hepatocyte and mitochondrial morphometry, as well as by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and mtRNA (COX1/(ß-actin) real-time-PCR quantification.
Results: Hepatocytes tended to be larger in the ON-HAART group than in the OFF-HAART group (p=0.05), but they both showed similar mitochondrial volume fraction of the cell and mitochondrial crista density. Liver mtDNA and mtRNA levels were not significantly differentbetween ON-HAART and OFF-HAART. Hepatocyte lipid accumulation was significantly higher in HCV genotype 3 compared to genotype 1 infection ()=0.002), but was not associated with HAART status.
Conclusions: We found no evidence or trend of increased mitochondrial toxicity in HIV/HCV co-infected individuals currently on HAART compared to those who are not. This finding could be relevant to the decision-making process with respect to initiating HCV therapy in this population.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/2517 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Matsukura, Motoi |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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