Relationship between the genetic variation in interleukin 28B and response to antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C

摘要

Background Genetic variations at the interleukin 28B (IL-28B) locus are important in predicting outcome following therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.The aim of this research was to evaluate the role of IL-28B single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variations in Chinese patients undergoing pegylated interferon-α plus ribavirin (PEG-IFN-α/RBV) treatment.Methods To determine the effect of IL-28B variation on the response to HCV therapy,these variants were genotyped in a cohort of 220 patients who were chronically infected with HCV and received combined PEG-IFN-α/RBV therapy.Results The proportions of rs12979860 CC,CT,and TT genotypes were 71.4％,25.0％,and 3.6％ respectively,in the sustained virological response (SVR) group; 15.8％,60.5％,and 23.7％ respectively,in the null virological response (NVR) group; and 38.1％,52.4％,and 9.5％ respectively,in the relapse (Rel) group (P ＜0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that,compared to those having the CC genotype,CT heterozygotes had an increased risk of NVR and Rel (OR=10.95,95％ Cl =4.12-29.11,P=1.5×10-7 and OR=3.93,95％ Cl =1.86-8.32,P=2.1x10-4 respectively).The RNA quantification assay showed that patients with genotype CC exhibited much higher levels of IL-28 expression than those with genotype CT or TT (P ＜0.001 ).Conclusions The IL-28B SNP rs12979860 genotype was related to the effectiveness of HCV therapy:patients with the CC rs12979860 genotype had higher rates of SVR than those with the CT or TT genotype,and the CC genotype revealed a significantly higher level of IL-28 mRNA expression.