Bacterial DNA translocation and liver disease severity among HIV-infected patients with chronic hepatitis C

Abstract

We carried out a cross-sectional study to explore whether bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA (bactDNA) shows association with severity of liver disease among human immunodeficiency virus/hepatitis C virus coinfected patients. Patients with advanced fibrosis (F3/F4), moderate activity grade (A2/A3), and high fibrosis progression rate (FPR > 0.15) had higher values of plasma bactDNA levels than did patients without these markers of liver disease (P < 0.05). The chance of having a fibrosis stage or activity grade increased was 1.20 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0 to 1.44, P = 0.045] and 1.22 (95% CI = 1.1 to 1.45, P = 0.029) times greater for every 100 copies per microliter of plasma bactDNA. Likewise, the odds of having values of FPR > 0.15 was 1.18 (95% CI = 0.98 to 1.42, P = 0.089). In addition, patients with high bactDNA levels (≥175 copies per microliter) had the highest odds of having high values of Metavir score and FPR (P < 0.05). Our data show that bacterial translocation is associated with severe liver disease among human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with chronic hepatitis C.