Abstract
The discovery of genetic variants near the gene for IL28B has provided new insight into the biology of hepatitis C infection and response to treatment with pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin. Patients that carry the favorable CC genotype for SNP rs12979860 or TT genotype for SNP rs8099917 are more likely to spontaneously clear the virus after acute infection and to respond to therapy with pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin. IL28B genotype may also have a relationship with the natural history of chronic hepatitis and has implications for organ allocation in liver transplantation. Now that the protease inhibitors telaprevir and boceprevir have improved the response rates to hepatitis c treatment, the applicability of IL28B genotyping in clinical practice is limited. However, further understanding of the mechanism underlying the relationship between IL28B and treatment response is likely to provide valuable insight into the pathophysiology of hepatitis c infection and response to therapy.
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