5200
Noha El-Sayed Ibrahim Sayed Ahmed
Studying the relation of interleukin 18 gene and fas gene polymorphisms in response to interferon therapy in Egyptian HCV infected patients
IL-18; HCV; Single polymorphism and Viral clearance.
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is usually associated with chronic infection and the host genetic factors may have an important role in viral clearance or persistence. Objectives: In this study, we investigated IL-18 (- 607C/A) polymorphism which are considered an important components of the immune system in determining the outcome of HCV infection. Its critical role as a marker in response to interferon therapy of HCV infection is also investigated besides its effect on other clinical patient factors. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted on 163 Egyptian patients with chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection who received PEG-INF + Ribavirin treatment for 48 weeks. The study was also conducted on 100 healthy controls (with negative results for HCV antibody and RNA PCR). Full history of patients in this study was recorded. Clinical and histological examinations, qualitative HCV nested RT-PCR, quantitative real –time PCR, and genotyping of HCV RNA genome were performed. IL-18 (-607C/A) polymorphisms were amplified. Results: The present study demonstrated that the IL-18 (-607 AA) had a very highly significant association with the response, better liver activity A1, low fibrosis stages (F1), (F2) relatively to the IL-18 (-607 CC) that had avery highly significant association with non-response, worse liver activity (A3) and worse fibrosis stages (F3), (F4) (95% confidence: 0.006 – 0.234 , P<0.001) respectively. Conclusions: SNP within the IL-18 gene should be considered as an important factor used in combination with other host gene SNPs when developing a mathematical model for anticipating response to HCV therapy.
2016
Ph.d
Zagazig
Science