Differential regulation of cytotoxicity pathway discriminating between HIV, HCV mono- and co-infection identified by transcriptome profiling of PBMCs

Background Despite the easy accessibility and diagnostic utility of PBMCs and their potential to show distinct expression patterns associated with the accelerated disease progression in HIV/HCV co-infection, there has not been a systematic study focusing on the global dysregulations of the biological pathways in PBMCs from HIV, HCV mono- and co-infected individuals. This study aimed at identifying the transcriptome distinctions of PBMCs between these patient groups.