Evaluation of the Inflammatory Cytokines and IL-10 Network in Individuals Co-infected With Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus and Hepatitis C Virus (HTLV/HCV)

BACKGROUND: Co-infection between the human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) and the hepatitis C virus (HCV) can modify the natural history of HCV infection. The aim of this study was to describe the inflammatory cytokines and IL-10 network in patients co-infected with HTLV and HCV viruses in Bahia, Brazil. METHODS: Samples from 31 HTLV/HCV co-infected individuals and 27 HCV monoinfected individuals were evaluated. IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-10, IL-8, and IL-1 cytokines were quantified by ELISA. Clinical, laboratory data were obtained from patient records. Serum levels of the cytokines were log(10)-transformed and data mining was performed using Z-score statistics and correlation analysis. RESULTS: Co-infected individuals presented a tendency toward higher production of INF-γ compared to the HCV monoinfected group. Regarding cytokine pairs, there was a positive correlation (P-value < 0.05) between IL-1 and IL-8 in the HTLV/HCV co-infected group and uninfected controls, and two correlations in the HCV mono-infected group IL-8 – IL10 and IL- INF-γ – IL-10 pairs. There was no significant difference between the groups for the other parameters analyzed. CONCLUSION: The results presented herein indicated that HTLV/HCV co-infection was associated with a trend in IFN-γ production while HCV-infected individuals presented a positive correlation with both inflammatory cytokines (IL-8 and IFN-γ) and the regulatory cytokine IL-10.