Genetic variation in NOS2A is associated with a sustained virological response to peginterferon plus ribavirin therapy for chronic hepatitis C in Taiwanese Chinese.

This study aimed to evaluate whether genetic polymorphisms of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene NOS2A could be associated with a sustained virological response (SVR) among patients infected with hepatitis C virus genotypes 1 and 2 (HCV-1 and HCV-2) who were treated with peginterferon plus ribavirin (PEG-IFNα-RBV). We analyzed the associations between SVR to PEG-IFNα-RBV therapy and two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NOS2A. This study included Taiwanese Chinese patients infected with either HCV-1 (n = 265) or HCV-2 (n = 195) with or without a SVR. Among the NOS2A SNPs examined, the combination of genotypes A/A and A/G of rs2248814 was inversely correlated with SVR in patients infected with HCV-1 (P = 0.0048), particularly in males (P = 0.0281). This effect was not observed in patients infected with HCV-2. The AC NOS2A haplotype comprising two SNPs (rs2248814 and rs2072324) was found to be associated with SVR, and its presence may decrease the chances for a successful outcome of treatment of patients infected with HCV-1 (P = 0.0053). HCV-1 infected patients who carried the A-C diplotype will have a lower success rate of achieving a SVR (P = 0.0117). In addition, a multivariate logistic regression model for predicting a SVR revealed that the presence of the A-C diplotype interactively affected the outcome of PEG-IFNα-RBV treatment. The presence of NOS2A SNPs and the association with SVR showed that NOS2A polymorphisms may influence the therapeutic outcomes of patients infected with HCV-1 under standard of care treatment.

Determination of trace indium in urine after preconcentration with a chelating-resin-packed minicolumn.

A simple and rapid chelating-resin-packed column has been developed for preconcentration of trace indium in biological samples. A large-sized urine sample was pumped through a minicolumn at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min by using a peristaltic pump, and the eluents were analyzed using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS). Four commercially available chelating resins including Chelex-100, Amberlite IRC-50, Duolite GT-73, and Celite 545-AW were studied for evaluating the indium sorption performance. Several parameters, such as pH, resin amount, eluent volume, eluent flow rate, and the volume of sample, were investigated and optimized. A 100-200 mL of the sample was loaded into a column containing 1.2 g of wet Chelex-100 and subjected to the ion-exchange procedure. The retained analytes were eluted with 5.0 mL of 0.1 M HNO(3) and quantified by GFAAS. The correlation coefficient in the range 10-250 ng/mL was of 0.9994. The limit of detection of the proposed method was 2.75 ng/mL. The method developed was successfully applied to analysis of spiked urine samples with good recoveries of 93-103% (n = 6) and reproducibility (relative standard deviation < 4.9%). The accuracy of procedure was confirmed by indium determination in spiked certified reference materials.