Role of host and viral factors and genetic variation of IL28B on therapy outcome in patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1b from Serbia

In hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection viral and host factors can influence therapy outcome to pegylated interferon/ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) and progression of liver fibrosis. Although novel direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) show newly successful treatment of hepatitis C infection, the majority of patients are unable to access this therapy because of cost and so remain untreated. Also, the efficacy of treatment with new therapy may be affected by the presence of resistance-associated substitutions (RASs). This study was designed to describe associations between baseline host and viral factors, progression of liver fibrosis and response to therapy with pegylated interferon/ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) genotype 1b. We analyzed pre-treatment of 100 patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 1b and related it to outcome of therapy. TaqMan assay was used to determine SNP rs12979860 in all patients. In our study there was significant correlation between age and response to therapy. Also, we found associations between a known route of transmission and age, gender, stage of liver fibrosis and therapy outcome. With respect to SNP rs12979860, the frequency of the CC genotype in the group with a sustained virologic response (SVR) was significantly higher than in the group of non-responders (NR). In contrast, there was no correlation between IL28B polymorphism and progression of liver fibrosis.