Study of Interleukin IL-28B rs12979860 and rs8099917 Polymorphisms among HBV Infected Egyptian Patients

Abstract

Background: HBV is a worldwide health problem as about 2 billion individuals have been infected with HBV and 350 million are the chronic carriers. The efficacy of anti-viral drugs used in treatment of HBV is high but these drugs are expensive, associated with many side effects and drug resistance was reported. Thus selection of patients with the highest probability of response is essential for clinical practice. Recent genome-wide association studies have revealed some polymorphisms near IL-28B region to be associated with HBV susceptibility, response to treatment or even spontaneous HBV clearance. Objective: This study aimed to investigate role of IL-28B single nucleotide polymorphisms among CHB Egyptian patients. Methodology: SNPs of IL-28B (rs12979860 and rs8099917) regions were genotyped using the MGB-TaqMan SNP genotyping assay in 60 HBV infected patients and 20 healthy volunteers. Results: IL-28B rs12979860 genotypes were expressed in similar proportions in all the studied groups and no statistical significant difference between them was found (MCP=0.272). Concerning IL-28B rs8099917 SNP; GG genotype was 90% expressed among healthy volunteers, while GT genotype was 80% expressed in naive HBV patients, and TT genotype was expressed in 10% non- responder HBV patients only. There was statistical significant difference between the studied groups as 80% of patients in the naive group were carrier to IL-28B rs8099917 GT allele (P=0.013). Conclusion: Genetic variations of IL-28B rs8099917 could be associated with HBV risk and resistance to treatment with nucleoside/ nucleotide analogues as G allele could be protective against HBV, GT genotypes could be risk factor for HBV infection while T allele may be predictive factors of treatment resistance.