Objectives
The aim of the study was to investigate whether the rs35761398 variants of the cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) gene may influence the acquisition of HIV infection and the clinical presentation of HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection.
Methods
We compared 166 HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients with 186 HCV‐monoinfected patients, all with biopsy‐proven chronic hepatitis (using the Ishak scoring system), naïve for anti‐HCV treatment and tested for the CB2 rs35761398 polymorphism (using the TaqMan assay).
Results
The HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients were more frequently male (P < 0.002), were younger (P < 0.001), and had lower median BMI (P < 0.001) and HCV RNA (P < 0.05) and higher median aspartate aminotransferase (AST; P < 0.001), alanine aminotransferase (ALT; P < 0.001) and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT; P < 0.001) levels than the HCV‐monoinfected patients. The CB2 RR variant predominated in HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients (45.8% vs. 31.2% in HCV‐monoinfected patients; P < 0.001) and the CB2 QR variant in HCV‐monoinfected patients (57.5% vs. 38.6% in HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients; P < 0.00001), and the CB2 QQ variant was equally distributed. Focusing on patients with the CB2 QQ variant, the 26 HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients, compared with the 21 HCV‐monoinfected patients, showed less severe liver necroinflammation [lower histological activity index (HAI)] (P < 0.05). Of the patients with the CB2 RR variant, the 76 HIV/HCV‐coinfected patients, compared with the 58 HCV‐monoinfected patients, were more frequently male (P < 0.05), were younger (P < 0.001), and had a lower median body mass index (BMI; P < 0.001), a higher median AST level (P < 0.001), a higher mean HAI score (P < 0.05) and a higher rate of cases with severe steatosis (P = 0.05). In an analysis of variance (anova) of HCV/HIV‐coinfected and HCV‐monoinfected patient data, those with the CB2 RR variant (P = 0.003) and of male sex (P = 0.002) were more prevalent in the HCV/HIV‐coinfected group.
Conclusions
There is the suggestion of a positive effect of the CB2 RR variant on HIV acquisition and/or spread, which is in accordance with previous in vitro observations.