Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Hepatitis C - biomedical/clinical

An increasing number of people are infected with both Hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV. HIV makes HCV related liver disease progress more rapidly. Liver disease is now one of the leading causes of illness and death in HIV-HCV-infected persons despite effective HIV treatment. One possibility is that ongoing inflammation contributes to liver disease as has been shown for other health outcomes among HIV infected persons such as heart disease. We have created a cohort study of 950 HIV-HCV infected persons from 16 centres across Canada to study how HIV and HCV therapy impacts HCV related liver disease. We will use this cohort to study how inflammation may contribute to liver disease over time and to assess how HIV and HCV treatments may affect the inflammatory response. Several inflammatory markers that have been linked to liver scarring will be measured before and after antiviral treatment and treatment interruption. This work will allow a greater understanding of how antivirals may play a role in improving liver scarring and will provide insights into how best to develop and target antiviral and anti-inflammatory therapies towards a goal of improving liver health among persons living with HIV and HCV co-infection.