Vitamin D Receptor FokI Gene Polymorphism Predicted Poor Response to Treatment in Chronic HCV Genotype 4

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between a genetic polymorphism of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and antiviral responses in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 4 (HCV-4). Methods: Our study enrolled 100 HCV-4 patients who received pegylated interferon alpha-2a (pegIFNα-2a) and ribavirin for 48 weeks. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to their response to therapy: 50 were responders, and 50 were nonresponders. All HCV-4 patients were further subjected to the following laboratory tests: HCV-RNA using quantitative PCR, vitamin D level using ELISA and VDR genotype using PCR-RFLP assays, and abdominal ultrasonography.Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the frequency of the VDR polymorphism (FokI rs10735810) between responders (FF:60%, Ff:16%, ff:24%) and non-responders (FF:10%, Ff:26%, ff:64%) (P<0.001). There was a statistically significant association between VDR polymorphism with higher ALT levels (ff: 63.2±30

Impact of vitamin D receptor and binding protein gene polymorphisms in clinical and laboratory data of HCV patients

“…Regarding VDR and DBP genes polymorphisms in Brazilian population, the BsmI, ApaI, TaqI, and the rs4588 and rs7041 polymorphisms were most consistently associated with lower 25 (OH)D levels. [ 26 , 40 ] However, in the present study both SNPs were not associated with lower levels of 25 (OH)D after applying Bonferroni correction. Nevertheless, Falleti et al [ 16 ] demonstrated that normal serum vitamin D levels and the carriage of GC-globulin WT isoform strongly predict the achievement of SVR after PEG-interferon plus RBV antiviral therapy.…”

“…This way, FokI C>T polymorphisms may be used as a molecular marker to predict the risk and to evaluate the disease severity of HCC in those infected with HCV since low concentrations of vitamin D is directly associated with increased liver injury in Brazilian population. Differently, Shehab et al [ 40 ] observed that VDR genetic polymorphisms are significantly associated with the occurrence of HCV-related HCC especially T allele carriers which could be considered as a risk factor of hepatocellular carcinoma in Egyptian patients.…”

Vitamin-D Binding Protein Gene Polymorphisms and Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin-D in a Turkish Population

“…In DBP gene polymorphisms in other populations, rs4588 and rs7041 polymorphisms were most consistently associated with lower 25 (OH)D levels [19][20][21][22][23]. There are also other variants of GC, namely, rs16846876, rs17467825, rs2282679, rs3755967, rs2298850, and rs1155563, which were reported to be significantly associated with both 25(OH)D concentrations and vitamin D deficiency (25(OH)D < 15 ng/mL) [24].…”

“…There are controversial data claiming that the differences in total 25(OH)D among populations or ethnicities depend on the derivation of free 25(OH)D using results obtained from a monoclonal assay for calculating DBP concentration [23]. Nielson et al showed that the monoclonal ELISA underestimates DBP concentrations in individuals with GC/1f alleles [32].…”