Prevalence and clinical significance of GB virus type C/hepatitis G virus coinfection in patients with chronic hepatitis C undergoing antiviral therapy

Abstract

Coinfection with GBV-C/HGV in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) may influence clinical course and response rates of antiviral therapy. Aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of GBV-C/HGV/HCV coinfection and its influence on outcome of interferon/ribavirin combination therapy. Three hundred and four patients with CHC [m/f = 211/93, age: 42 (18-65)] were investigated. HGV RNA detection was performed by polymerase chain reaction prior to and 6 months after the end of antiviral therapy. HGV/HCV coinfection could be identified in 37/304 (12.2%) patients with intravenous drug abuse as the most common source of infection (N = 21, (56.8%)). The predominant HCV genotype in coinfected individuals was HCV-3a (HCV-3a: 51.4%, HCV-1: 37.8%, HCV-4: 10.8%). HGV coinfection was more prevalent in patients infected with HCV-3 compared to HCV-1 or HCV-4 [19/45 (42.2%) vs. 14/185 (7.6%) vs. 4/52 (7.7%), P < 0.01]. Patients with HGV/HCV coinfection were younger [35 (18-56) vs. 43 (19-65), years; P < 0.01], and advanced fibrosis (F3-F4) was less frequent (22.2% vs. 42.9%, P < 0.05). A sustained virological response was achieved more frequently in HGV/HCV coinfected patients [26/37 (70.3%)] than in monoinfected patients [120/267 (44.9%), P < 0.01]. HGV RNA was undetectable in 65.7% of the coinfected patients at the end of follow-up. Intravenous drug abuse seems to be a major risk factor for HGV coinfection in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Coinfection with HGV does not worsen the clinical course of chronic hepatitis C or diminish response of HCV to antiviral therapy. Interferon/ribavirin combination therapy also clears HGV infection in a high proportion of cases.

Discovery of a Novel Human Pegivirus in Blood Associated with Hepatitis C Virus Co-Infection

“…Third, HPgV-2 viremia was not as prevalent as HPgV-1 viremia in all of the groups tested (Table 1, S1 Table). We found HPgV-1 in 9.5% of HCV-infected individuals and in 4.2% of volunteer blood donors, comparable with other reports [24][25][26][27][28][29], while HPgV-2 viremia was 1.1% in HCV-infected individuals (p < 0.0001 versus HPgV-1 viremia) and absent in volunteer donors (p < 0.0001). This difference in prevalence may reflect differences in the mode or efficiency of HPgV-2 transmission relative to HCV and HPgV-1.…”

GB Virus C infection in Patients With HIV/Hepatitis C Virus Coinfection: Improvement of the Liver Function in Chronic Hepatitis C

“…Our findings were consistent with the previous reports in the patients with HIV/HCV coinfection from Australia (6) and Germany (5), suggesting a similar transmission efficiency for the three viruses among high risk group. Moreover, the higher prevalence of GBV-C RNA was 33.33% in our cohort with HCV mono-infection than other studies (16, 17). This might be explained by the impact of HCV treatment on GBV-C RNA clearance.…”

Hepatitis G virus (HGV), its prevalence and genotypes in patients with hepatitis B & C in Ahvaz, Southwest Iran

“…Alvarado-Mora et al in Colombia reported that 5.06% of HBsAg-positive samples were also HGV-positive, while 3.2% of HCVpositive cases were HGV-positive (4), which in the case of HBV samples is close to our findings but much lower than the co-infection rate of HGV and HCV in the present study. Co-infection of HGV with HCV was reported as 12.2% by Hofer et al (20). In an investigation by Ziaee et al on hemodialysis patients in Birjand, Iran, 5% of HGV-infected patients also had HCV (21), much lower than our results.…”