The Effects of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism of IL28B Gene (rs12979860) on Treatment Response to Pegylated Interferon/Ribavirin in Iranian Patients with Hepatitis C

Background and The standard of care treatment for infected patients with HCV is based on a combination of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin. Recently, the rs12979860 SNP polymorphism, located upstream of the interleukin 28B gene, was shown to be strongly associated with response to anti-HCV therapy. This study investigated the distribution of the (C/T) polymorphism with sustained virologic response (SVR) to chronic Hepatitis C virus infection among Iranian population. This cross-sectional study was performed in 108 blood samples including 71 SVR positive and 37 negative samples from individuals suffering from chronic hepatitis C, and 50 healthy controls. DNA was extracted from the samples and the frequency of the polymorphism was analyzed using PCR-RFLP method. Finally, the products were detected on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In the analysis of the data for C/T polymorphism, the CC genotype was identified in 29 patients of whom 28 (39.4%) achieved SVR, while the CT heterozygous was found in 75 patients and SVR was achieved in 42 (59.2%). Finally, the TT was detected in 14 patients and only one (1.4%) responded to treatment. Patients with C allele had significantly higher SVR rate than those with T allele. These data suggest that genotype detection of rs12979860 SNP may be useful as an important predictive biomarker for SVR in patients infected with HCV. However, further studies with more samples lead to more validated results.