Background Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with early onset of chronic diseases, and increased risk of chronic disorders. Chronic viral infections have been linked to accelerated biological aging based on epigenetic clocks. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between HCV infection and clinical measures of biological aging among 8,306 adults participating the 2015-2018 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Methods NHANES 2015-2018 participants aged 20 years and older who had complete data on clinical blood markers and HCV related tests were included in the current study. We estimated biological age using two approaches including Phenotypic Age (PhenoAge) and allostatic load (AL) score based on nine clinical biomarkers. Results After adjusting for demographic and other confounding factors, HCV antibody-positivity was associated with advanced PhenoAge (β = 2.43, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.51-3.35), compared with HCV antibody-negativity. Additionally, both active HCV infection (HCV RNA (+)) and resolved infection were associated with greater PhenoAge acceleration. The positive association with AL score was not statistically significant. We did not observe any significant interactions of potential effect modifiers, including smoking and use of drug/ needle injection, with HCV infection on measures of biological aging. Conclusions Our findings suggest that HCV infection is independently associated with biological aging measured by phenotypic age in the US general population. Further studies are warranted to confirm the findings.

中文翻译：

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与丙型肝炎感染相关的加速表型衰老：2015-2018 年美国国家健康和营养检查调查结果


背景 慢性丙型肝炎病毒 （HCV） 感染与慢性病的早期发作和慢性疾病风险增加有关。慢性病毒感染与基于表观遗传时钟的加速生物衰老有关。在这项研究中，我们旨在调查参与 2015-2018 年全国健康和营养检查调查 （NHANES） 的 8,306 名成年人的 HCV 感染与生物衰老临床指标之间的关联。方法 NHANES 2015-2018 参与者年龄在 20 岁及以上，具有临床血液标志物和 HCV 相关检测的完整数据。我们使用两种方法估计生物年龄，包括基于 9 个临床生物标志物的表型年龄 （PhenoAge） 和异体负荷 （AL） 评分。结果 在调整人口统计学和其他混杂因素后，与 HCV 抗体阴性相比，HCV 抗体阳性与晚期 PhenoAge 相关 （β = 2.43,95% 置信区间 （CI），1.51-3.35）。此外，活动性 HCV 感染 （HCV RNA （+）） 和已解决的感染都与更大的 PhenoAge 加速相关。与 AL 评分的正相关无统计学意义。我们没有观察到潜在影响因素（包括吸烟和使用药物/针头注射）与 HCV 感染对生物衰老指标的任何显着相互作用。结论 我们的研究结果表明，HCV 感染与美国普通人群的表型年龄测量的生物衰老独立相关。需要进一步的研究来证实这些发现。