No Effect Of Pegylated Interferon-Alpha On Total Hiv-1 Dna Load In Hiv-1/Hcv Coinfected Patients

Pegylated interferon-alpha (pIFN-alpha) is suggested to lower human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) DNA load in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-treated patients. We studied kinetics of HIV-1 DNA levels in 40 HIV-1/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfected patients, treated with pIFN-alpha for HCV and categorized into 3 groups according to start of ART: chronic HIV-1 infection (n = 22), acute HIV-1 infection (n = 8), no-ART (n = 10). Total HIV-1 DNA levels in 247 peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples were stable before, during, and after pIFN-alpha treatment in all groups. Our results question the benefit of pIFN-alpha as an immunotherapeutic agent for reducing the HIV-1 reservoir.