Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious global health issue. Nearly 20% of HCV patients spontaneously clear the virus. While some studies have shown an association of spontaneous clearance (SC) of the virus with interleukin (IL) 28B single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), others did not show such a relationship. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the association of IL28B polymorphisms (12979860 SNP) with SC of HCV infection. Upon initial screening of the databases, a total of 545 articles were retrieved, of which 22 studies that met predefined eligibility criteria were entered into the meta-analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) with confidence intervals (95% CI), heterogeneity, publication bias, and sensitivity analysis were assessed. According to the meta-analysis results, a significant association was observed between the rs12979860 SNP and SC of HCV infection. The results indicated that the ORs of SC from hepatitis C virus infection were 2.75 times higher in those with cytokine gene polymorphisms (95% CI, 2.23 to 3.38). Moreover, it was found that the prevalence of rs12979860 CC was 0.33 with 95 CI 0.28-0.38 in genotype 1 and was 0.40 with 95 CI 0.34-0.47 in other genotypes. Our meta-analysis results suggest that IL28B rs12979860 CC is a strong predictor for SC of hepatitis C infection in PEG IFN-a/RBV-treated patients.
Highlights
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious public health problem worldwide affecting > 170 million persons globally and around 3–4 million people are newly infected each year [1,2,3]
It is estimated that the spontaneous clearance (SC) of the virus happens in 20% of patients with acute HCV infection, and liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic HCV patients could be an inevitable process [46]
Based on our meta-analysis result, rs12979860 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) exhibited a significant association with HCV SC and sustained virologic response (SVR)
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious public health problem worldwide affecting > 170 million persons globally and around 3–4 million people are newly infected each year [1,2,3]. While the pathogenicity of HCV has not been completely determined, studies have shown that several viral and host factors have been connected to the differences in the viral persistence or clearance. Several studies have shown that SC of virus and response to treatment might be related to interleukin (IL) 28B gene polymorphisms. Several studies showed that there is a correlation between these SNPs and SC, treatment, and prediction of response [9,4,10]. Because these SNPs are located in the promoter and regulatory region of the IL28B gene on chromosome 19, they can affect IL28B cytokine gene expression and production. SC of HCV infections may be affected by these SNPs [7,11]
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