Sun T, et al. – Authors here investigated the molecular mechanism of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfections. They performed isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) based proteomic analyses that identified 7 proteins that were related to HIV/HBV coinfection. Findings suggested that HBV could influence hepatic and immune functions by deregulating complement and coagulation pathways. For the treatment of HIV/HBV coinfections, C9 and KLK could potentially be used as targets.

Methods

• HIV infected and HIV/HBV coinfected patients with and without Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) were selected.
• For this study, low abundance proteins enriched using a multiple affinity removal system (MARS) were labeled with iTRAQ kits and analyzed using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS).
• Gene Ontology (GO) database was used to analyze the differential proteins.

Results

• Researchers identified a total of 41 differential proteins in HIV/HBV coinfected patients as compared to HIV mono–infected patients with or without HAART treatment, including 7 common HBV–regulated protein.
• Findings revealed significant enrichment of the proteins involved in complement and coagulation pathways, including plasma kallikrein (KLK) and complement component C9 (C9).
• ELISA analysis verified down–regulation of C9 and KLK in HIV/HBV coinfected patients.