The correlation between interleukin–28B gene polymorphism and its antiviral efficacy in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection

Objective o evaluate the association between IL–28B (rs12979860) polymorphism andantiviraltherapeutic effectbydetecting the genotype of interleukin–28B (IL–28 B) in patients with hepatitis C (HCV). Methods Of total 1153 HCV patients, 303 diagnosed with CHC had been treated with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin for 24–48 weeks. IL–28B (rs12979860) was genotyped by two–color fluorescent TaqMan assay. Results Among 1153 patients, CC, CT and TT genotype frequencies of IL–28B rs12979860 are 83.26%, 16.22% and 0.52% respectively. The results of HCV genotypingof 580 in 1153 cases, the frequencies of 1b, 2a and their non–1b/2a type are 63.45%, 35.00% and 1.55% respectively; In 303 CHC patients with clear medical history, the proportion of SVR was71.98% in patients with CC genotype and 16.90% in those with either the CT or TT genotypes. Logistic regression model was adopted to analyze the association of rs12979860 with SVR while adjusting for age, gender, viral load and HCV GT factors. Populations carrying combined genotype (CT + TT) are making it harder to get SVR compared with those with CC genotype (OR, 95%CI: 11.10, 5.35–23.04; P<0.000 1). The percentages of SVR in HVC patients with 1b and 2a genotypeare 48.02% and 81.19% respectively. there is a statistically significant difference between these subgroups (χ2=30.639, P<0.000 1). Conclusion IL–28B rs12979860 genotype is closely related to SVR in CHCpatients. Patients with CC genotype have a higher virus sustained response rate than those carrying CT or TT genotype. The SNP, rs12979860, might be applied as a predictor of clinical antiviral efficacy in the furture. (Chin J Lab Med, 2015, 38: 155–158) Key words: Hepatitis C, chronic; Interleukins; Polymorphism, single nucleotide; Hepacivirus