Polymorphisms in interleukin-10 and interleukin-28B genes in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 4 and their effect on the response to pegylated interferon/ribavirin-therapy.

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Recently, it has been suggested that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in some cytokine genes may influence the production of the associated cytokines that affect the host immune response to pegylated interferon-α (Peg-IFN-α) with ribavirin (RBV) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible role of the SNPs of IL-10 and Il-28B and their serum levels in predicting the response to treatment of HCV-4.

METHODS

Egyptian patients were treated with Peg-IFN-α/RBV. A total of 100 HCV genotype 4-infected patients and 80 healthy control subjects were included in the present study. SNPs in the IL-10 (-592 A/C and -819 T/C) and IL-28B (rs8099917 T/G and rs12979860 C/T) genes and their serum levels were assessed. The IL-10-592-CC, IL-28-rs8099917-TT and IL-28-rs12979860-CC genotypes were significantly higher in responders than in non-responders.

RESULTS

Interestingly, the serum levels of IL-10 were significantly increased; in contrast, the serum levels of Il-28B were significantly decreased in HCV patients compared with normal patients. Polymorphisms in IL-28B are more sensitive (P < 0.001) than those in IL-10-592 (P = 0.03). However, the serum level of IL-10 is higher than that of IL-28, and this difference can serve as a prognostic marker using a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that SNPs in IL-28B and the serum levels of Il-10 and IL-28 may be promising predictors for HCV therapy.