Objective: To evaluate the influence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection on clinical, immunological, and virological responses and on adverse reactions to nevirapine-containing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Chinese adult antiretroviral-naive HIV-positive patients.
Methods: This prospective, multicentric study enrolled 175 HIV-1-positive subjects who initiated HAART and attended follow-up visits over 100 weeks from 2005 to 2007. They were grouped based on HCV antibody and HCV RNA test results. Virological and immunological responses and adverse events were monitored at baseline and at the end of weeks 4, 12, 24, 36, 52, 68, 84, and 100. For data analyses, we used repeated measures of variance.
Results: There were 117 patients who were HCV antibody negative (anti-HCV-), 24 who were anti-HCV+ but HCV RNA-, and 34 who were anti-HCV+ and HCV RNA+. Compared with both anti-HCV- group and anti-HCV+ HCV RNA- group, the anti-HCV+ HCV RNA+ group had a higher incidence of rash (P = 0.044) and hepatotoxicity (P = 0.001) from adverse drug reactions. We observed no statistically significant differences in viral load responses among the 3 groups during follow-up. CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses were similar among the 3 groups.
Conclusions: HCV/HIV coinfection does not affect immunological and virological responses to HAART. However, the positive anti-HCV and HCV RNA in serum worsened adverse drug reactions to HAART such as rash and hepatoxicity in HIV patients.