Assessing Molecular Point-of-Care Testing and Dried Blood Spot for Hepatitis C Virus Screening in People Who Inject Drugs.

Background: Injecting drug use is a major driver of hepatitis C virus (HCV) spread worldwide, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified people who inject drugs (PWID) as a key population to target for HCV screening and care. Point-of-care (POC) hepatitis C tests and dried blood spot (DBS) sampling offer benefits for the management of patients with HCV infection by increasing HCV testing and linkage to care in different nonclinical settings. The aims of this prospective study were to evaluate the feasibility and the acceptability of use HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) POC and fingerstick DBS testing in social-medical risk-reduction centers and to describe the cascade of care among PWID in France.

Increased liver stiffness is associated with mortality in HIV/HCV coinfected subjects: The French nationwide ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH cohort study.

Background: The association between liver stiffness measurements (LSM) and mortality has not been fully described. In particular the effect of LSM on all-cause mortality taking sustained virological response (SVR) into account needs further study.

Methods: HIV/HCV participants in the French nation-wide, prospective, multicenter ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH cohort, with ≥1 LSM by FibroScan (FS) and a detectable HCV RNA when the first valid FS was performed were included.

Factors associated with non-AIDS-defining cancers and non HCV-liver related cancers in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients- ANRS-CO13 HEPAVIH cohort.

Compared to the general population, HIV-infected patients are at higher risk of developing non-AIDS-defining cancers. Chronic HCV infection has also been associated with a higher risk than that of the general population of developing cancers other than hepatocarcinoma. Evaluation of the impact of HCV-related factors on non-AIDS-defining and non HCV-liver (NANL) related cancers among HIV/HCV co-infected patients are scarce.

Evolution of patients' socio-behavioral characteristics in the context of DAA: Results from the French ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH cohort of HIV-HCV co-infected patients.

Background: Direct-acting antivirals (DAA) have dramatically increased HCV cure rates with minimal toxicity in HIV-HCV co-infected patients. This study aimed to compare the socio-behavioral characteristics of patients initiating pegylated-interferon (PEG-IFN)-based HCV treatment with those of patients initiating DAA-based treatment.

Methods: ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH is a national multicenter prospective cohort started in 2005, which enrolled 1,859 HIV-HCV co-infected patients followed up in French hospital outpatient units.

Significant reductions in alcohol use after hepatitis C treatment: results from the ANRS CO13-HEPAVIH cohort.

Background And Aims: Few data exist on changes to substance use patterns before and after hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment. We used longitudinal data of HIV-HCV co-infected individuals to examine whether receiving pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN)-based therapy irrespective of HCV clearance could modify tobacco, cannabis and alcohol use.

Design: A prospective cohort of HIV-HCV co-infected individuals was enrolled from 2006.

Real-World Efficacy of Daclatasvir and Sofosbuvir, With and Without Ribavirin, in HIV/HCV Coinfected Patients With Advanced Liver Disease in a French Early Access Cohort.

Background: Efficacious, well-tolerated, direct antiviral agents have drastically changed the prognosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) disease, but real-world data for oral treatments are limited in key populations such as HIV/HCV coinfection with advanced liver disease. Daclatasvir (DCV) efficacy and safety was assessed in the French "Autorisation Temporaire d'Utilisation" (ATU) program, providing DCV ahead of market authorization to patients with advanced HCV disease without other treatment options.

Methods: This was a subanalysis of HIV/HCV coinfected ATU patients treated with DCV plus sofosbuvir (SOF).

Efficacy and safety of direct-acting antiviral regimens in HIV/HCV-co-infected patients - French ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH cohort.

Background & Aims: There is little data available on the use of new oral direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimens to treat human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus (HIV/HCV) co-infected patients in real-life settings. Here, the efficacy and safety of all-oral DAA-based regimens in HIV/HCV-co-infected patients enrolled in the French nationwide ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH observational cohort are reported.

Methods: HIV/HCV-co-infected patients enrolled in the ANRS CO13 HEPAVIH observational cohort were included if they began an all-oral DAA-based regimen before 1st May 2015 (12-week regimens) or 1st February 2015 (24-week regimens).

A new 3p25 locus is associated with liver fibrosis progression in human immunodeficiency virus/hepatitis C virus-coinfected patients.

Unlabelled: There is growing evidence that human genetic variants contribute to liver fibrosis in subjects with hepatitis C virus (HCV) monoinfection, but this aspect has been little investigated in patients coinfected with HCV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We performed the first genome-wide association study of liver fibrosis progression in patients coinfected with HCV and HIV, using the well-characterized French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis CO13 HEPAVIH cohort. Liver fibrosis was assessed by elastography (FibroScan), providing a quantitative fibrosis score.

All-oral Direct-acting Antiviral Regimens in HIV/Hepatitis C Virus-coinfected Patients With Cirrhosis Are Efficient and Safe: Real-life Results From the Prospective ANRS CO13-HEPAVIH Cohort.

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/hepatitis C virus (HCV)-coinfected patients with cirrhosis have long been considered to be difficult to treat, and real-life efficacy and tolerance data with all-oral direct-acting antiviral (DAA) combinations in these patients are scarce.

Methods: Cirrhotic HIV/HCV-coinfected patients enrolled in the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS) CO13 HEPAVIH cohort initiating an all-oral DAA regimen were consecutively included. A negative HCV RNA result at 12 weeks of follow-up or thereafter was assumed as a sustained virologic response (SVR12).

High Proportion of HIV-HCV Coinfected Patients with Advanced Liver Fibrosis Requiring Hepatitis C Treatment in Haiphong, Northern Vietnam (ANRS 12262).

Rationale And Aims: Screening and treatment for chronic hepatitis C are very limited in Vietnam and clinical data on HCV-related liver disease in HIV-coinfected people are almost inexistent. This study aimed to assess the severity of liver fibrosis and its risk factors in HIV-HCV coinfected patients in Haiphong, Northern Vietnam.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a HIV outpatient clinic.

The need for data on women living with HIV in Europe.

Across Europe, women account for one-third of new diagnoses of HIV and yet data to guide the treatment of women living with HIV are limited, a situation largely due to under-representation of women in clinical trials. SHE is a European initiative co-led by a medical faculty of HIV physicians and a community peer-support faculty of women living with HIV, with the common goal of improving the outcomes and quality of life of women living with HIV.In 2011, two meetings of the SHE medical faculty and invited specialists in HIV medicine were convened to discuss the situation of and clinical care for women living with HIV in Europe.

Considerations for the long-term management of women living with HIV in Europe.

The average age at which women are first diagnosed with HIV is increasing and, due to advances in antiretroviral therapy (ART), women are living with HIV for longer. Once regarded as a fatal disease of young males, HIV is now considered a lifelong chronic condition affecting both men and women into older age. This raises questions for the long-term management of women living with HIV in Europe, such as how age affects the ART response, what the consequences are of long-term ART, and whether the comorbidities of ageing and menopause are different in women with HIV compared with men or uninfected women.

Self-reported alcohol abuse in HIV-HCV co-infected patients: a better predictor of HIV virological rebound than physician's perceptions (HEPAVIH ARNS CO13 cohort).

Aims: Studying alcohol abuse impact, as measured by physicians' perceptions and patients' self-reports, on HIV virological rebound among patients chronically co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Seventeen French hospitals.

Ribavirin and abacavir drug interaction in HIV-HCV coinfected patients: fact or fiction?

Objective(s): To examine the impact of ribavirin and abacavir coadministration on hepatitis C virus (HCV) virological response and trough ribavirin plasma concentration (Cmin) in HIV-HCV coinfected patients.

Design: Pharmacokinetic substudy on patients from the ANRS CO-13 HEPAVIH cohort.

Methods: Patients receiving ribavirin-pegylated interferon for whom a ribavirin steady state Cmin was prospectively determined were included.

Erythrocyte and plasma ribavirin concentrations in the assessment of early and sustained virological responses to pegylated interferon-alpha 2a and ribavirin in patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus and HIV.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between erythrocyte and plasma ribavirin concentrations in hepatitis C virus (HCV)/HIV-coinfected patients, and to correlate ribavirin exposure with early and sustained virological response (EVR and SVR) and haemoglobin level reductions.

Methods: Clinical and biological data from 68 HCV/HIV-coinfected patients were recorded at baseline, week 4 (W4), week 12 and at 24 weeks after completion of treatment. Plasma and erythrocyte ribavirin concentrations were determined 12 h after the final ribavirin dose (C(min)).

Lack of TGF-β production by hepatitis C virus-specific T cells during HCV acute phase is associated with HCV clearance in HIV coinfection.

Background & Aims: Immunity and genetic factors govern the recovery from acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. No predictive factors have been yet identified in patients coinfected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We investigated whether early T cell responses to HCV producing transforming-growth-factor beta (TGF-β) predict the outcome of acute HCV coinfection, independently of the IL-28B gene polymorphism.

Influence of interferon-based therapy on liver fibrosis progression in HIV/HCV coinfected patients: a retrospective repeated liver biopsy analysis.

Background & Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection is one of the leading causes of mortality in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. The current standard of care leads to cure only in a part of these patients. The course of the disease is determined by the rapidity of liver fibrosis progression (LFP).

Effect of antiretroviral drugs on the quality of semen.

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine which antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) are associated with changes in the characteristics of semen and the impact of these ARVs according to their score penetration into the male genital compartment. Data from 144 men infected with HIV-1 enrolled in an Assisted Reproductive Technology program were analyzed retrospectively. A seminal penetration score of ARV was based on the available literature.

Treatment of acute hepatitis C in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients: the HEPAIG study.

Unlabelled: Acute hepatitis C continues to be a concern in men who have sex with men (MSM), and its optimal management has yet to be established. In this study, the clinical, biological, and therapeutic data of 53 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected MSM included in a multicenter prospective study on acute hepatitis C in 2006-2007 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The mean hepatitis C virus (HCV) viral load at diagnosis was 5.

Impact of hepatitis C and liver fibrosis on antiretroviral plasma drug concentrations in HIV-HCV co-infected patients: the HEPADOSE study.

Objectives: To compare plasma antiretroviral concentrations in HIV-HCV co-infected and in matched HIV mono-infected patients.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational study. Antiretroviral trough concentrations (C(min)) in plasma were measured in HIV-HCV co-infected patients with liver disease documented by liver biopsy, matched with HIV mono-infected patients according to gender and antiretroviral treatment.

Treatment of acute HCV infection in HIV-positive patients: experience from a multicentre European cohort.

Background: Early treatment of acute HCV infection has been shown to improve virological response rates in HIV-positive patients; however, details on when and how to best treat acute HCV infection remain unclear at present.

Methods: In this European multicentre cohort study, HIV-positive patients with acute HCV infection were offered immediate or delayed anti-HCV therapy, pegylated interferon or pegylated interferon plus ribavirin combination therapy for 24 or 48 weeks, depending on the local protocol. The main outcome measure was the rate of sustained virological response (SVR).

Acute hepatitis C in HIV-infected patients: rare spontaneous clearance correlates with weak memory CD4 T-cell responses to hepatitis C virus.

Objectives: To explore the parameters of specific immunity to hepatitis C virus (HCV) associated with virus clearance during acute HCV infection in HIV coinfection.

Methods: HIV-infected patients without prior HCV infection were prospectively enrolled for acute hepatitis C and followed up over 15 months. HCV-specific T cells were assessed by proliferation, ELISpot, intracellular cytokine staining and pentamer assays.

Liver damage underlying unexplained transaminase elevation in human immunodeficiency virus-1 mono-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy.

Unlabelled: Liver damage associated with chronic unexplained high serum transaminases in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients under combined antiretroviral therapy is unknown. Liver histology was prospectively investigated in patients presenting serum transaminase elevation for more than 6 months, after exclusion of alcohol abuse, hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, autoimmune, and genetic liver diseases. In a subgroup of patients, liver mitochondrial activities were measured by spectrophotometry and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Efficacy and safety of adefovir dipivoxil plus pegylated interferon-alpha2a for the treatment of lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus infection in HIV-infected patients.

Background: Up to 10% of the HIV-positive population is coinfected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Generally, combined treatment includes agents against both viruses, such as lamivudine (3TC). However, HBV resistance to 3TC is high.

Pattern and impact of emerging resistance mutations in treatment experienced patients failing darunavir-containing regimen.

Background: Ritonavir-boosted darunavir (DRV/r) has proven potent efficacy when used in heavily pretreated patients, harboring protease inhibitor-associated resistance mutations. Limited data are available on resistance pattern emerging in patients failing DRV/r and on subsequent remaining protease inhibitor options.

Methods: Analysis of baseline and failure resistance genotypes were performed in patients experiencing virologic failure (>200 copies/ml) after at least 3 months on a DRV/r (600/100 mg twice daily)-containing regimen.