RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Polymorphisms in some genes may influence the persistence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, clinical outcome, HCV replication, and liver damage. This study was conducted to investigate the role of the interferon gamma (IFN-γ) gene at (+874 T/A, -764 G/C, -179 C/A) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and its receptor (IFN-γR2) at (rs 2786067 A/C) SNP in the susceptibility of Egyptian families to HCV infection with high-resolution techniques. METHODS: In total, 517 Egyptian families, with 2246 subjects, were recruited to this study from the Upper and Lower Egypt governorates and were classified into three groups: 1034 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus, 108 subjects with spontaneous virus clearance (SVC), and 1104 subjects as a healthy control group. All subjects were genotyped for (+874 T/A, rs2430561, -764 G/C, rs2069707, -179 C/A, rs2069709, and rs 27860067, A/C) SNPs of the IFN-γ gene using the allelic discrimination real-time polymerase chain reaction technique and were confirmed using sequence-based typing. RESULTS: The carriage of T allele of (+874) IFN-γ is a risky allele and was significantly higher in chronic hepatitis C more than other two groups (odds ratio [OR]: 2.6646, P < 0.0002). On the other hand, the C allele of (-764, rs2069707) is a protective allele and was higher in SVC than the other two groups (OR: 0.2709, P < 0.0001). However, both (-179 C/A, rs 2069709) and (rs 27860067, A/C) SNPs are not polymorphic enough to be studied in the Egyptian population. CONCLUSIONS: HCV infection is associated with the T allele of (+874 rs2430561), while SVC of HCV is associated with the C allele of (-764, rs2069707) of the IFN-γ gene.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND/AIMS: The invasive liver biopsy is still considered the gold standard for assessing patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Our aim was to determine the operating characteristics of a non-invasive index based on blood biomarkers for the prediction of cirrhosis in CHC patients. METHODS: Hyaluronic acid level was determined by radioimmuno-assay and its degrading enzymes and degradation products were determined by standard techniques in 153 patients with CHC with and without liver cirrhosis. Statistical analyses were performed by logistic regression, and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: The multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA) selected a function based on absolute values of five biochemical markers; Score=[1.63+Hyaluronic acid (microg/l)x0.001+N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminidase (micromol/ml/min)x0.02+glucuronic acid (microg/dl)x0.015+glucosamine (microg/dl)x0.006+AST/ALT ratiox0.04]. The selected MDA function correctly classified 96% of the cirrhotic patients at a discriminant cut-off score=2.5 (i.e. less than 2.5 indicated CHC without liver cirrhosis and greater than 2.5 indicated liver cirrhosis) with high degrees of sensitivity (95%) and specificity (97%). The positive predictive and negative predictive values were also high (95% and 97%, respectively). CONCLUSION: A patient with CHC can be simply and efficiently classified into cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic liver diseased patient using his or her MDA score.