Characterization of the Interleukin-28B Gene rs12979860 C/T Polymorphism in Turkish Chronic Hepatitis C Patients and Healthy Individuals

Abstract

Background: Host genetic factors can affect the progress of hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection. Interleukin-28B (IL28B) single nucleotide polymorphisms may play an important role in the clearance of HCV spontaneously or with treatment. Aims: The aim of our study was to evaluate the rate of IL28B genotypes in patients with Chronic Hepatitis-C (CHC) and healthy control subjects and to examine the characteristics of patients in each IL28B subgroup. Study Design: Case-control study. Methods: IL28B polymorphisms were genotyped by Polymerase Chain Reaction and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in all subjects. Results: The mean age was 52.3±10.9 years (33% female) in the CHC patients and 52.5±11.5 years (39.1% female) in the healthy controls. The percentage of patients with a high baseline viral load (≥400,000 IU/mL) was higher in the CT group (69.8%) compared to the C/C (44.4%) and T/T (50%) groups (p=0.021). There was no significant difference in liver fibrosis and liver necroinflammation distribution among the CC, CT and TT genotypes with mild, moderate and severe groups (p=0.058 and p=0.791, respectively). Mean age, gender ratio, body mass index, viral load at baseline, rate of HCV genotypes, baseline ALT levels were not significantly different among the three IL28B subgroups (p>0.05). A significant increase was observed in the frequencies of IL28B rs12979860 TT genotypes in the CHC patients (20.6%) compared to the healthy control group (8.7%) (p=0.033). Conclusion: In the patients with chronic HCV-genotype 1b and 4 infections, the IL28B rs12979860 (C>T) gene polymorphism frequency of the TT genotype and T allele was higher than in healthy control subjects. This result indicates that the TT genotype may be more effective in the progression of HCV infection than other genotypes.

Interleukin 28B Genetic Polymorphism and Spontaneous Recovery from Hepatitis B Virus Infection in an Iranian Azeri Population

“…This difference decreased in studies from Arabian countries (23) where rs12979860CC was still foremost. On the other hand, rs12979860CT is the most common genotype reported by studies from Turkey (24,25), similar to the current results from Iranian Azeri-Turk population. However, this similarity is not restricted to inhabitants of Azerbaijan province yet are reported from other parts of Iran as well (19,26).…”

Interleukin-28B Polymorphism is a Pharmacogenetic Predictor during Sofosbuvir Plus Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C Egyptian Patients

“…Hence, the TT genotype may be more effective in the progression of HCV infection and may increase the risk of HCC [49,50] The relation between SVR of HCV and IL28B SNP rs12989760 polymorphisms were studied. The genotype CC achieved the highest rate of SVR12 compared with CT and TT genotypes.…”

Genetic Variation in Interleukin-28B and Response to Peg-IFNα-2a/RBV Combination Therapy in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection

“…On the other hand, because the most studied patients were infected with HCV genotype 1b, this polymorphism was analyzed separately in these participants. The genotype frequencies of rs12979860 polymorphisms in these patients with CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 33.3%, 58.3%, and 8.3%, respectively, which are close to the corresponding frequencies in Iranian and Turkish patients (26)(27)(28).…”