Interleukin 28B rs12979860 CT, rs12980275 GA, rs8099917 GT and TT genotypes are the Predictors of Rapid Viral Response in Hepatitis C Virus-Infected Patients

Objective: In this study, the effects of genotypic differences on the clinical course of the disease, response to treatment and fibrosis were investigated in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Materials and Methods: Ninety-nine chronic HCV-infected patients and 95 controls were enrolled. The patients received pegylated interferon (PegIFN) + ribavirin (RBV) for 48 weeks and followed up for the next 48 weeks. Aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index was used to determine the stage of liver fibrosis. DNA specimens were extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the interleukin (IL) 28B gene rs12979860, rs12980275, and rs8099917 were genotyped by the immune polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Results were analysed using the SPSS 16.0 and OpenEpi 2.2 softwares. Results: All patients had HCV genotype 1. Among the 99 HCV+patients, in 26.3% spontaneous viral clearance, in 42.8% rapid viral response, 92% early viral response and in 72.6% sustained viral response was observed. The allele frequencies of IL28B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), rs12979860, rs12980275, and rs8099917 were not identical in all samples (p<0.005). SNP rs12979860 CT genotype (p=0.010); rs12980275 GA genotype (p=0.010); and rs8099917 GT and TT genotypes (p=0.019 and 0.020, respectively) were strongly associated with rapid viral response in the overall sample. Conclusion: The determination of IL28B polymorphisms may be useful to individualize treatment options when using PEG/RBV-based therapies for chronic HCV infection but genetic characteristics of populations of the countries must be known.