Impact of protease inhibitors on intrahepatic hepatitis C virus viral load

During chronic hepatitis C, hepatitis C virus (HCV) load in plasma was shown to be higher in HIV-co-infected than in immunocompetent patients [1]. The reason for this increased HCV replication is not known. It may be as a result of HIV-induced immune deficiency [2], although some authors did not find any correlation with the CD4 cell count [3]. A direct interaction between HCV and HIV was also hypothesized [4]. Protease inhibitors (PI) used in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) have no HCV reduction effect during the first months of treatment [5-8]. However, a decrease in HCV plasma load was recently described in patients treated with HAART for a year [9,10]. We therefore investigated the potential impact of HAART on intrahepatic HCV load.