Impact of Interleukin-28B Polymorphism on Response to Treatment in Chinese Hepatitis C Patients

The candidate polymorphism rs12979860 of interleukin 28B(IL28B) gene was genotyped by means of polymerase chain reaction(PCR) amplification and direct PCR sequencing, and then the role of this single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) in the response to the treatment of 172 Chinese patients with hepatitis C virus(HCV) chronic infection was analyzed. The results show that the frequencies of major homozygotes(CC) and heterozygotes(CT) of rs12979860 were 0.84 and 0.16, respectively, and the minor homozygotes(TT) wasn't found in this cohort. A highly significant association was found between the CC genotype and sustained virological response(SVR) in HCV genotype 1 infected patients(P<0.001) but not in HCV non-genotype 1 infected patients. In addition, a strong association was found between rs12979860 CC genotype and rapid virological response(RVR) in both HCV genotype 1 infected patients(P<0.001) and non-genotype 1 infected patients(P<0.001). Taken together, these results indicate that IL28B polymorphism plays a key role in response to hepatitis C therapy in Chinese patients. Combine assessment of clinical predictors and the IL28B polymorphism may be beneficial to the individualized treatment decision in Asian chronic hepatitis C(CHC) patients.