ABSTRACT

Objectives: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains a global health concern. As individuals infected with HIV struggle with the complexities of their condition, the coexistence of additional pathogens can significantly alter the course of the disease. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human pegivirus type 1 (HPgV-1) co-infection in patients with HIV-1 infection using an in-house developed multiplex real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 113 HIV-1-positive patients. The HIV-1 load was evaluated using the Artus HI Virus-1 RG RT-PCR Kit in serum samples. Subsequent to the assessment of optimal annealing temperature, primer-probe concentration, analytical sensitivity, and endpoint sensitivity, selected primer-probe sets for HCV, HPgV-1, and ribonuclease P were recruited to identify co-infections.

Results: Of the 113 HIV-1-positive individuals, 24% were female and 76% were male. Interestingly, 74% of the patients had no history of addiction. Optimization of the in-house developed RT-qPCR test revealed an acceptable efficiency and a linear dynamic range with a limit of detection of 287 copy/µL. HCV was detected in five patients (4.43%), whereas no HPgV-1 was detected.

Conclusion: More than 74% of the participants had no history of addiction, which may explain the differences in the reported prevalence of HCV/HIV co-infection worldwide and in Iran. Findings of the present study are consistent with the prevalence reported for the general population (4%). In the present study, HPgV-1 was not detected in the collected samples, which is consistent with reports from Iran (a range of 0-26%).