In this nested case-control study of infants with in utero hepatitis C exposure, we assessed 21 plasma cytokines/chemokines at age 2 months in 11 infants with perinatal transmission and 11 negative controls. Of 6 detectable biomarkers, cases exhibited higher plasma programmed death-ligand 1, a proposed marker of T-cell exhaustion that requires further evaluation, specifically in infants with perinatal hepatitis C infection.
Fisher et al. (2026) studied this question.