Relationship Of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism In Interleukin-18Gene Promoter Region And Response To Interferon Treatment In Patient With Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Objective:To investigate the genotype and allele frequency of-607C/A and-137G/C in interleukin-18gene promoter region, and explore the relationship between the single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) of interleukin-18and the response of HCV infected patients treated with interferon plus libavirin.Methods:The SNPs of-607C/A and-137G/C loci in interleukin-18gene promoter region was examined by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism(RFLP) method in199patients infected chronically with HCV and180healthy controls persons. The genotype and allele frequency distribution were compared between the patients group and healthy control group. The relationship between SNPs in-607C/A and-137G/C loci and response to interferon treatment in patients with HCV infection was analysised by statistic analysis.Results:There were no significantly difference of the genotypes distribution and allele frequency of-607C/A locus between the patients with HCV infection and healthy controls. Whereas HCV chronically infected patients with-607A alleles compared with those with-607C alleles(x2=5.903, P=0.015) and patients with-607AA genotypes compared with those with-607CA(x2=4.195, P=0.041) or-607CC(x2=5.230, P=0.022) genotypes had higher sustained virologic response(SVR) response to interferon treatment.-137GG genotype distribution and-137G alleles(χ2=6.612, P=0.010;χ2=6.476,P=0.011) frequency were significantly higher in patients infected chronically with HCV than those in healthy controls. Whereas,-137GC genotype distribution and-137C alleles frequency were significantly lower in patients infected chronically with HCV than those in healthy controls(χ2=5.548, P=0.019; χ2=6.476,P=0.011). Moreover, HCV chronically infected patients with-137C alleles compared with those with-137G alleles(χ2=3.885, P=0.049) and patients with-137GC genotypes compared with those with-137GG(χ2=5.869, P=0.015) genotypes had higher SVR response to interferon treatment.Conclusion:-607A alleles and-137C alleles in interleukin-18gene promoter region seems to be associated with higher SVR obtained by patients treated by interferon plus Ribavirin.