Small RNA sequencing of plasma extracellular vesicles from HCV and HIV/HCV coinfected patients

A total of 52 patients were analyzed: 21 of them monoinfected with HCV and 31 coinfected with HIV (HCV/HIV). HCV patients were recruited from Hospital Italiano and Hospital José María Ramos Mejía from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and HCV/HIV patients from Hospital Universitario La Paz, Hospital Infanta Leonor, Hospital Universitario La Princesa, Hospital Puerta de Hierro, from Madrid, Spain. All samples were processed at the National Center for Microbiology (Madrid). Patients were naıve of treatment for HCV. CHC infection was defined by the presence of anti-HCV antibodies in serum and detectable HCV RNA in plasma samples in at least 2 separate occasions. All HIV+ patients had HIV antibodies, CD4+ T-cells counts ≥ 500 cel/mm3 for at least one year before sample collection, and undetectable HIV viral load since they received suppressive antiretroviral treatment (ART) for at least one year. Plasma extracellular vesicles isolation and RNA purification was performed using the ExoRNeasy Serum/Plasma Midi kit (QIAGEN, Cat #77044). EVs were phenol-lysed and total RNA was purified by ethanol-based membrane binding into spin columns. Quality and integrity were evaluated by the Bioanalyzer 2100 with Agilent RNA 6000 Nano kit (Agilent). Small RNA library synthesis and sequencing were performed at Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) at Barcelona (Spain). Small RNA libraries were constructed with Illumina’s TruSeq Small RNA kit v.4 (Illumina) and 50nts (1x50) were sequenced in an Illumina HiSeq2500, with a single read approach.