Association between the IL28B rs12979860 POLYMORPHISM and therapy response in patients infected with genotype 1 of hepatitis c virus in central Brazil

ABSTRACT

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) upstream of the IL28B gene have been associated with the spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and with a sustained virological response (SVR) to HCV infection treatment. This study aimed to investigate the association between IL28B SNP rs12979860 and SVR in patients with hepatitis C in Central Brazil. A total of 101 HCV genotype 1 mono-infected chronic patients treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) were studied in the City of Goiânia, Central Brazil. Analysis of rs12979860 showed that the most prevalent genotype was CT (57.4%), followed by CC (23.8%) and TT (18.8%). An overall SVR rate of 28.7% (95% CI 20.4-38.7) was found in the study population. In a multivariate analysis, only IL28B rs12979860 CC genotype (OR 3.77; 95% CI 1.13-12.60; p = 0.031) was associated with SVR. These findings show that IL28B SNP rs12979860 is a strong predictor of SVR in the PEG-IFN/RBV treatment in patients infected with genotype 1 of HCV in Central Brazil