Hepatitis C HIV may promote the presence of HCV in the semen of co-infected people

HIV may favor the presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the semen of co-infected people, according to a study published in the "Aids" magazine.

Of the 150,000 people living with HIV in France, 7% are co-infected with HCV, according to data published by the Institute of Health Surveillance (VS).

Although co-infection HIV / HCV are in almost all cases acquired through injection drug intravenously, several studies still controversial, have shown that HCV can also be transmitted during sexual intercourse.

Previous studies have shown that viral HCV RNA could be detected in the semen of 10% to 30% of HCV + individuals.

Reviewing the studies of HCV in Cochin Hospital (Paris, fourteenth district) and Necker (Paris, fifteenth arrondissement) data, Aurélie Briat, the virology laboratory of the Necker Hospital, and colleagues sought to determine the impact of HIV on HCV seminal location.

According to this analysis, which involved a total of 120 patients, 82 of whom were also infected with HIV, it seems that HCV RNA was more frequently detected in the semen of HIV + (37.8%) than of HIV (18.4%).

However, researchers have hypothesized that this difference could be due to the higher load observed in HCV co-infected patients (5.93 log10 IU / ml) than in mono-infected (5.68 log10 IU / ml).

"The fact of finding the virus in semen, is to make it possible to transmit the virus," argued Dr. Marianne Leruez City, hospital practitioner in the laboratory and co-author of the article, contacted by Reuters Health.

However, "viral loads were very low" on the detectable limit, which "may explain why HCV transmission is not very effective."

The researchers also observed after genetic analysis conducted on two patients, the quasi-species present in the blood and seminal compartment were the same. "There is no genetic difference between the two compartments," said Dr. Marianne Leruez City.

According to her, these results favor the hypothesis, already proposed a passive transfer of blood to the semen, while avoiding the replication of the virus in semen, unlike HIV.

"There is still a strong homology (less genetic distance between cash equivalents) in semen than in blood," noted Dr. Marianne Leruez City, suggesting a preferential passage of certain cash equivalents between two compartments.

"This preferential transfer may explain why some people with high blood viral load showed no detectable RNA in semen was detected while in others with low viral load," the researchers speculated.