Department of Clinical Pathology, Kasr Al-Ainy, School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Tropical Medicine, Kasr Al-Ainy, School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
J Med Virol. 2017 Sep;89(9):1584-1589. doi: 10.1002/jmv.24815. Epub 2017 May 12.
At least 1 in 10 of the Egyptian population aged 15-59 is burdened with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, stamping Egypt the highest country harboring HCV worldwide. Considerable evidence supported the involvement of host genetic factors in the pathogenesis of HCV and the possibility of implementation in target therapies. ApoB gene polymorphisms are postulated to affect the susceptibility of HCV infection. Hence, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between ApoB-516C/T promoter gene polymorphism and HCV infection in a cohort of Egyptian patients and to explore whether higher levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) might compete with lipoviral particles (LVP) in the binding to LDL receptor (LDLR), thus escaping infection. Ninety-seven HCV patients and 96 matched controls were enrolled in this study. We genotyped ApoB-516C/T using PCR-RFLP method. ApoB concentrations were measured by immunoturbidimetric assay. The genotype and the allele frequencies of ApoB-516C/T promoter gene polymorphism in cases were statistically insignificant compared with healthy individuals (P = 0.109, 0.125, respectively). Sex stratification showed significantly lower counts of C/T genotype in female patients compared with female controls (P = 0.011, OR = 0.132, 95% CI = 0.026-0.657). Significantly higher levels of LDL and ApoB were detected in the control group (P < 0.001). This study shows that the ApoB-516C/T promoter gene polymorphism has no impact on the risk of HCV infection. However, the C/T genotype may be a protective factor for our female cohort. Further studies with larger samples are needed to verify this genetic gender diversity. Additionally, high levels of LDL and ApoB might prevent HCV infection.
埃及 15-59 岁人口中至少有 1/10 感染了丙型肝炎病毒 (HCV)，这使埃及成为世界上 HCV 感染率最高的国家。大量证据支持宿主遗传因素在 HCV 发病机制中的作用，并可能应用于靶向治疗。载脂蛋白 B 基因多态性被认为会影响 HCV 感染的易感性。因此，我们旨在评估埃及患者队列中载脂蛋白 B-516C/T 启动子基因多态性与 HCV 感染之间的关系，并探讨 LDL 是否可能与脂蛋白颗粒 (LVP) 竞争 LDL 受体 (LDLR) 的结合，从而逃避感染。本研究纳入了 97 例 HCV 患者和 96 名匹配的对照。我们使用 PCR-RFLP 方法检测 ApoB-516C/T 基因型。采用免疫比浊法测定 ApoB 浓度。病例组和对照组的 ApoB-516C/T 启动子基因多态性的基因型和等位基因频率无统计学差异（P=0.109，0.125）。性别分层显示，女性患者的 C/T 基因型明显低于女性对照组（P=0.011，OR=0.132，95%CI=0.026-0.657）。对照组 LDL 和 ApoB 水平明显升高（P<0.001）。本研究表明，载脂蛋白 B-516C/T 启动子基因多态性对 HCV 感染风险没有影响。然而，C/T 基因型可能是我们女性队列的一个保护因素。需要进一步开展更大样本量的研究来验证这种遗传性别多样性。此外，高水平的 LDL 和 ApoB 可能会预防 HCV 感染。
