Interleukin-28B polymorphisms are associated with an early viral response in patients receiving hepatitis C therapy

Abstract

Prediction of the efficacy of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy against hepatitis C (HCV) infection is valuable for determining its applications. This study investigated the relationship between the early response of HCV to PEG-IFN/RBV therapy and the inter-leukin (IL)-28B genetic polymorphism in patients with HCV infection. The genotypes of IL-28B rs8099917 T>G single nucleotide polymorphism were determined in 144 patients with HCV infection. Among them, 59 were treated with PEG-IFN/RBV. The frequency of IL-28B TT homozygosity was 75.2% in patients with HCV serotype 1 and 84.6% in patients with serotype 2. Multivariate analysis showed that IL-28B TT homozygosity (P=0.014) and the platelets number (P=0.030) was associated with the early suppression of HCV-RNA at 12 weeks after the start of PEG-IFN/RBV therapy. The IL-28B polymorphism was a significant pre-treatment predictor of the response to PEG-IFN/RBV therapy in patients with HCV infection.

Figure 1.

Early viral response of the HCV genotype 1 to pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV). Patients of HCV genotype 1 were stratified according to their IL28B allele type, and the early responses of HCV-RNA at 4, 8 and 12 weeks after the start of PEG-IFN/RBV therapy were assessed.

Figure 2.

Comparison of the effects of PEG-INFα-2a and 2b on HCV positivity. Data were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method. There were no significant differences between the effects of the two PEG-IFNα formulations.