title: Elevated Linoleic Acid (A Pro-Inflammatory PUFA) and Liver Injury in a Treatment Naive HIV-HCV Co-Infected Alcohol Dependent Patient.
abstract: HIV and HCV co-infection is a unique disease condition, and medical management of such condition is difficult due to severity and systemic complications. Added with heavy alcohol drinking, risk of liver injury increases due to several pro-inflammatory responses that subsequently get involved with alcohol metabolism. Elevated levels of fatty acids have been reported both in viral infections as well as alcoholic liver disease though such investigations have not addressed the adverse events with dual viral infection of HIV and HCV along with heavy drinking. This case report is of a patient with excessive alcohol drinking and first time diagnosis of HIV and HCV dual infection, elaborating concurrent alteration in Linoleic Acid (LA) levels and pro-inflammatory shift inω-6/ω-3 ratio along with the elevations in liver injury markers. Elevated LA has been recently studied extensively for its role in alcoholic liver disease; and in the present case, we also found it to be clinically relevant to liver injury.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, USA; Section on Human Psychopharmacology, LCTS/DICBR/NIAAA at National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.
authors.forename: Vatsalya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vatsalya
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, USA.
authors.forename: Shirish S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Barve
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, USA; Robley Rex VA Medical Center, Louisville, USA.
authors.forename: Craig J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: McClain
authors.affiliation: Section on Human Psychopharmacology, LCTS/DICBR/NIAAA at National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.
authors.forename: Vijay A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Ramchandani
keywords: Alcohol; Fatty Acids; HCV; HIV; Liver Injury