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Hepatitis C Main Forums => Hepatitis C and HIV Coinfection => Topic started by: Hep Editors on February 15, 2019, 11:01:53 am

Title: Bubonic Plague–Driven Gene Tied to Less Fibrosis in Those With HIV and Hep C
Post by: Hep Editors on February 15, 2019, 11:01:53 am

A genetic mutation that may have conferred protection against the 14th-century bubonic plague in Europe is associated with less severe liver fibrosis among those coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Publishing their findings in Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers studied blood samples from HIV/HCV–coinfected individuals who had contracted the viruses through hemophilia treatments during the 1980s. The scientists analyzed differences in liver fibrosis progression among them based on whether they had a genetic mutation known as the CCR5-delta 32 mutation, which yields a nonfunctioning CCR5 coreceptor on the surface of the immune cells that HIV targets. Most HIV latches onto that coreceptor to begin the process of infecting a cell.

For more...
https://www.hepmag.com/article/bubonic-plaguedriven-gene-tied-less-fibrosis-hiv-hep-c