Mo1023 The Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the Vitamin D Pathway DHCR7 Gene and Pre-Treatment HBV-DNA Strongly Predict HBeAg Loss in HBeAg-Positive Chronic Hepatitis B Patients Treated With Pegylated Interferon: Multicenter Study

Abstract

Aim: Clinical outcome after hepatitis B virus (HBV) exposure vary extremely from spontaneous clearance to chronic hepatitis B and often progresses to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Host genetic factor plays an important role in the regulation of immune response. The study was designed to investigate whether (HLA) class II DQA1 and DQB1 gene polymorphism are associated with chronic hepatitis B infection and whether it leads to the development of HBV related liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in north Indian population. Methods: We have assessed the DQA1 and DQB1 allele polymorphism in 187 HBV related liver diseases which included (73 chronic hepatitis B, 84 LC, and 30 HCC patients) and 109 controls who had spontaneously recovered from HBV infection by using polymerase chain reaction amplification with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP). Results: The data suggest that DQA1*0101/2/4 (OR=2.78; P=0.003), DQA1*0103 (OR= 2.64; P=0.0007) and DQB1*0302/3 (OR=2.15; P=0.01) were associated with protection from chronic HBV infection, while DQB1*0402 (OR=0.25; P=0.001) conferred susceptibility to chronic HBV infection, respectively. It was also observed that DQB1*0601 (OR=3.73; P=0.006) conferred protective effect from developing Liver Cirrhosis, similarly DQB1*0302/ 3 (OR=5.53; P=0.05) and DQB1*0402 (OR=0.00; P=0.0001) conferred protective effect from progressing to HCC. Though, DQA1*0601 and DQB1*0503 showed some susceptible effect on chronic HBV infection, these association were no longer significant after Bonferroni correction (P=0.23, P=0.59). Conclusion: The results suggest that various subtypes of HLA-DQA1 and DQB1 does influence the HBV clearance and development of chronic HBV infections in north Indian population.