An emerging biomarker for atherosclerosis is present in some patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, a recent study found. This study investigated a novel independent biomarker for CVD, autoantibodies to apolipoprotein A-1 (anti-apoA-1 IgG) and lipids in patients with chronic HCV before, during, and after direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy. 89 blinded serum samples from 27 patients with advanced chronic HCV were assayed for lipids and anti-apoA-1 IgG. Researchers found:

• Pretreatment HCV viral load correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and negatively with apolipoprotein (apo)B and markers of CVD risk, the apoB/apoA-1 ratio, and triglyceride level (TG)/HDL-C ratio.
• 14 (52%) of patients had detectable anti-apoA-1 IgG autoantibodies pretreatment; only 2 became undetectable with virological cure.
• Autoantibody-positive sera had lower apoA-1, HDL-C, and total cholesterol levels.