RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a globally serious public health issue. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we investigated CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5-59029) polymorphism which is considered an important component of the immune system in determining the outcome of HCV infection. Its critical role as a marker in response to interferon therapy of HCV infection is also investigated besides its effect on other clinical patient factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 82 Egyptian patients with chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection who received PEG-INF + Ribavirin treatment for 48 weeks. The study was also conducted on 50 healthy controls (with negative results for HCV antibody and RNA PCR). Full history of patients in this study was recorded. Clinical and histological examinations, qualitative HCV nested RT-PCR, quantitative real -time PCR, and genotyping of HCV RNA genome were performed. CCR5-59029 polymorphism with nucleotide substitution from G to A was amplified. The amplicons were digested with restriction endonuclease Bsp 1286I, and produced RFLPs of the CCR5 genotypes were determined. RESULTS: The present study showed a significant association between the functional SNP of CCR5 gene and the viral response to interferon in chronic HCV Egyptian patients. It was shown that the higher fibrosis stages (F2-F4) had significant association with nonresponse to treatment compared to the lower fibrosis stages (F0-F1) (95% confidence: 5.497 - 55.074, P = 0.0001). In addition, worse liver activity grade (A2-A3) had a very highly significant association with non-responder HCV patients compared to those with better liver activity grade (A1) (95% confidence: 2.242 - 20.974, P = 0.0007). Most importantly HCV patients with G allele had a high significant association with nonresponse to treatment, higher fibrosis stages and worse liver activity grades, while the A allele had a high significant association with sustained response, low fibrosis stages and relatively better liver activity grade (95% confidence: 3.347 - 15.036, P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: SNPs within the CCR5 gene should be considered as an important factor used in combination with other host gene SNPs when developing a mathematical model for anticipating response to HCV therapy.
RESUMO
Auditory-evoked potentials represent the response of the auditory pathway to an auditory stimulus. Specific language impairment (SLI) children have delayed language development with difficulties in both understanding and producing spoken language. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine whether a group of children with SLI had abnormal changes in the auditory middle latency response (AMLR). AMLR was obtained for 19 SLI children and they were studied and compared to normal. Audiological assessment and speech language tests were done for the study group. The results revealed no significant statistical differences between SLI children and the normal with regard to AMLR (P > 0.05). Our results suggest that children with SLI do not have abnormal auditory system response at the level measured by AMLR casting doubt on affection of the hypnotized origin of AMLR, mainly primary auditory cortex, as a cause for delayed language development in those children.
