Influence of Interleukin 28 Gene Polymorphism on Response to Therapy of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Children

Background: Investigating predictors of response to antiHCV therapy may avoid the current expensive therapy associated with various side effects. Aim of Work: To test for the hypothesis claiming that single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the IL-28B gene might affect the response to antiviral treatment. The SNP rs12979860 C>T in the IL-28B gene was assayed, and its influence on response to HCV therapy was investigated in a cohort of HCV infected children. Patients and Methods: Seventy three HCV infected children were treated with combined Peg-IFN a2b and ribavirin. Baseline viral load was determined, as well as viral load at 12 and 24 weeks after starting therapy. When viral load did not become negative or did not decrease by 2 log at 12 weeks/ or when it was still positive at 24 weeks, patients were considered non-responders and treatment was stopped for the remaining patients, who responded to treatment, HCV RNA was again assayed at the end of 48 weeks of therapy and 24 weeks after the end of therapy (sustained virological response: SVR). SNP analysis of IL-28B was done by real time polymerase chain reaction. Results: SVR was achieved in 38.4%. There was a significant association between polymorphism in the IL-28B SNP rs12979860 and response to therapy in children, ( p=0.016), where the CC genotype is more likely to respond to HCV therapy than CT and TT genotypes. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that IL28 gene SNP rs12979860 C>T and basal viral load were important independent factors predicting response to antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis C children. Conclusion: IL28B SNP rs12979860 C>T provides valuable information as regards the patient's liability to achieving SVR for the HCV therapy, which is increasingly relevant in the clinical practice. Multivariate logistic regression study showed that IL28 gene SNP rs12979860 and pretreatment viral load were crucial independent factors predicting response to HCV therapy in children. Correspondence to: Dr. Sahar A. Sharaf, The Department of Clinical & Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt