RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The present study investigates if common missense functional variants p.I148M and p.E167K in PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 genes, respectively, associate with development of hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis in a geographically novel cohort of Pakistani chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. METHODS: In total, 502 Pakistani CHC patients [242 males, median age 40 years, 220 with significant hepatic fibrosis, including 114 with cirrhosis] were genotyped for PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 variants using TaqMan genotyping assays. Associations between genotypes, biochemical and clinical parameters were evaluated. RESULTS: Genotypic distributions for PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 polymorphisms conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and did not associate with fibrosis grades ≥ F2 or cirrhosis in any of the genetic models tested (all p = > 0.05). PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 variants did not modulate baseline characteristics and serum markers of liver injury in CHC patients. Similarly, increasing number of risk alleles of PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 polymorphisms had no trend effect on serum liver enzyme activities or proportion of CHC patients with significant or advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis (p = > 0.05). The same trend of no association with hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis persisted in the multivariate logistic regression models adjusting for age, gender, body mass index and HCV viral load (p = > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PNPLA3 and TM6SF2 variants do not appear to modulate development of hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis in present CHC patients of Pakistani origin, and may be of more relevance in liver pathology involving abnormalities in hepatic fat accumulation. These results also reflect the divergent associations observed for different genetic modifiers of hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis in distinct ethnicities.
Assuntos
Aciltransferases , Hepatite C Crônica , Cirrose Hepática , Proteínas de Membrana , Fosfolipases A2 Independentes de Cálcio , Aciltransferases/genética , Adulto , Estudos de Associação Genética , Predisposição Genética para Doença , Genótipo , Hepatite C Crônica/genética , Humanos , Cirrose Hepática/genética , Masculino , Proteínas de Membrana/genética , Paquistão , Fosfolipases A2 Independentes de Cálcio/genética , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo ÚnicoRESUMO
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), primarily inflammatory cardiomyopathy, are characterized by the infiltration of inflammatory cells into the myocardium. It has a relatively high risk of deteriorating heart function and has heterogeneous etiologies. Inflammatory cardiomyopathy is mainly mediated by viral infections but can also be mediated by protozoa, fungal or bacterial infections. Besides that, there are a wide variety of drugs, toxic substances, and systemic immune-mediated diseases that result in the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Despite broad research, inflammatory cardiomyopathy has a poor prognosis. The roles of the pathogens, host genomic counterparts and environmental triggers in the progression of disease are still under consideration, including the role of some viruses as active inducers and others as bystanders. In this review article, we review the available evidence on the types, pathogenesis and treatment of myocarditis, inflammatory cardiomyopathy, and atherosclerosis with a particular focus on virus-associated cardiac diseases.