Polymorphisms in interleukin-10 and interleukin-28B genes in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 4 and their effect on the response to pegylated interferon/ribavirin-therapy.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Recently, it has been suggested that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in some cytokine genes may influence the production of the associated cytokines that affect the host immune response to pegylated interferon-α (Peg-IFN-α) with ribavirin (RBV) in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible role of the SNPs of IL-10 and Il-28B and their serum levels in predicting the response to treatment of HCV-4.

METHODS: Egyptian patients were treated with Peg-IFN-α/RBV. A total of 100 HCV genotype 4-infected patients and 80 healthy control subjects were included in the present study. SNPs in the IL-10 (-592 A/C and -819 T/C) and IL-28B (rs8099917 T/G and rs12979860 C/T) genes and their serum levels were assessed. The IL-10-592-CC, IL-28-rs8099917-TT and IL-28-rs12979860-CC genotypes were significantly higher in responders than in non-responders.

RESULTS: Interestingly, the serum levels of IL-10 were significantly increased; in contrast, the serum levels of Il-28B were significantly decreased in HCV patients compared with normal patients. Polymorphisms in IL-28B are more sensitive (P < 0.001) than those in IL-10-592 (P = 0.03). However, the serum level of IL-10 is higher than that of IL-28, and this difference can serve as a prognostic marker using a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that SNPs in IL-28B and the serum levels of Il-10 and IL-28 may be promising predictors for HCV therapy.