RESUMO
INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global medical problem. HLA -DRB1 alleles have an important role in immune response against HCV. The aim of this study is to clarify the contribution of HLA -DRB1 alleles in HCV susceptibility in a multicentre family-based study. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 162 Egyptian families were recruited in this study with a total of 951 individuals (255 with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), 588 persons in the control group(-ve household contact to HCV) and 108 persons who spontaneously cleared the virus (SVC). All subjects were genotyped for HLA -DRB1 alleles by SSP-PCR and sequence based typing (SBT) methods. RESULTS: The carriage of alleles 3:01:01 and 13:01:01 were highly significant in CHC when compared to that of control and SVC groups [OR of 3 family = 5.1289, PC (Bonferroni correction ) = 0.0002 and 5.9847, PC = 0.0001 and OR of 13 family = 4.6860, PC = 0.0002 and OR = 6.5987, PC = 0.0001 respectively]. While DRB1*040501, DRB1*040101, DRB1*7:01:01 and DRB1*110101 alleles were more frequent in SVC group than CHC patients (OR = 0.4052, PC = 0.03, OR: OR = 0.0916,PC = 0.0006, OR = 0.1833,PC = 0.0006 and OR = 0.4061, PC = 0.0001 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that among the Egyptian families, HLA-DRB1*030101, and DRB1*130101 alleles associated with the risk of progression to CHC infection, while DRB1*040101, DRB1*040501, DRB1*7:01:01and DRB1*110101 act as protective alleles against HCV infection.