Capobianchi M R, Lalle E, Martini F, Poccia F, D'Offizi G, Antonucci G, Abbate I, Dianzani F
Laboratory of Virology.
Cell Mol Biol (Noisy-le-grand). 2006 May 15;52(1):3-8.
GB virus C (GBV-C) co-infection is associated with a better prognosis in HIV-infected persons. Since interferon activation can be one of the possible mechanisms involved in GBV-C-driven protection against HIV, we compared the endogenous activation of the interferon system in PBMC from GBV-C-positive and -negative patients infected with HIV-1.
The expression of interferon related genes was analyzed in 20 GBV-C positive and 20 GBV-C-negative HIV-infected patients, comparable in terms of CD4 cell counts and HIV viral loads. The levels of mRNA for interferon-related genes (2-5-OAS, MxA, interferon AR-1 and PKR) in PBMC were measured by real time RT-PCR, using B-actin as internal control.
The endogenous levels of all the Interferon-related genes in HIV/GBV-C co-infected patients were higher than in HIV mono-infected subjects. The difference was statistically significant for PKR mRNA. Direct positive correlation was found between PKR and all the other interferon-related genes, suggesting a coordinated activation of the interferon system.
Enhanced activation of the interferon system occurs in GBV-C-positive, as compared to GBV-C-negative patients harbouring HIV-1. These data may be relevant to understand the GBV-C-driven protection against HIV, suggesting that the endogenous activation of the interferon system can contribute to the control of HIV replication.
丙型肝炎病毒G（GBV-C）合并感染与HIV感染者的较好预后相关。由于干扰素激活可能是GBV-C驱动的抗HIV保护作用所涉及的可能机制之一，我们比较了HIV-1感染的GBV-C阳性和阴性患者外周血单核细胞（PBMC）中干扰素系统的内源性激活情况。
分析了20例GBV-C阳性和20例GBV-C阴性的HIV感染患者中干扰素相关基因的表达，这些患者在CD4细胞计数和HIV病毒载量方面具有可比性。以β-肌动蛋白作为内参，通过实时逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测PBMC中干扰素相关基因（2-5-寡腺苷酸合成酶、Mx蛋白A、干扰素α受体1和蛋白激酶R）的mRNA水平。
HIV/GBV-C合并感染患者中所有干扰素相关基因的内源性水平均高于HIV单一感染患者。蛋白激酶R mRNA的差异具有统计学意义。蛋白激酶R与所有其他干扰素相关基因之间存在直接正相关，提示干扰素系统的协同激活。
与携带HIV-1的GBV-C阴性患者相比，GBV-C阳性患者的干扰素系统激活增强。这些数据可能有助于理解GBV-C驱动的抗HIV保护作用，提示干扰素系统的内源性激活可能有助于控制HIV复制。
