Large-Scale Candidate Gene Analysis of Spontaneous Clearance of Hepatitis C Virus

Human genetic variation is a determinant of recovery from acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection; however, to date, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in only a limited number of genes have been studied with respect to HCV clearance. We determined whether SNPs in 112 selected immune response genes are important for HCV clearance, by genotyping 1536 SNPs in a cohort of 343 persons with natural HCV clearance and 547 persons with HCV persistence. PLINK (version 1.05) and Haploview (version 4.1) software packages were used to perform association, permutation, and haplotype analyses stratified by African American and European American race. Of the 1536 SNPs tested, 1426 (92.8%) were successfully genotyped. In African Americans, we identified 18 SNPs located in 11 gene regions that were associated with HCV infection outcome (empirical P value, < .01). In European Americans, there were 20 SNPs located in 8 gene regions associated with HCV infection outcome. Four of the gene regions studied (TNFSF18, TANK, HAVCR1, and IL18BP) contained SNPs for which the empirical P value was <.01 in both of the race groups. In this large-scale analysis of 1426 genotyped SNPs in 112 candidate genes, we identified 4 gene regions that are likely candidates for a role in HCV clearance or persistence in both African Americans and European Americans.