Abstract

The combined viral hepatitis and schistosomiasis incidence was found to be increasing; however scarce studies are available which investigated the influence of Schistosoma mansoni on the HCV specific immune response. This study included four groups: Group 1 included 23 patients infected with chronic HCV, Group 2 included 10 patients infected with Schistosoma mansoni, Group 3 included 21 patients infected with chronic HCV and Schistosoma mansoni, Group 4 included 10 healthy controls. HCV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses were measured by flow cytometery in all groups and correlated with PCR level. The infected patients with chronic HCV alone had stronger CD4+ T cell response than did coinfected patients also the coinfected patients had the lowest percent of CD8+ T cell, and significantly higher HCV-RNA titers. An inverse relationship between virus load and CD4+ T cell responses were found. Schistosomiasis is one of the mechanisms which lead to viral persistence through downregulation of immune response and accelerate liver damage in HCV patients.