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Interleukin‐ 28B: a prognostic marker in interferon based therapy of chronic HCV patients of the Pakistan with variable treatment response
Author(s) -
Resham Saleha,
Manzoor Sobia,
Imran Muhammad,
Saalim Muhammad,
Naseem Sidrah,
Azam Sikandar
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
apmis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0903-4641
DOI - 10.1111/apm.12414
Subject(s) - ribavirin , single nucleotide polymorphism , hepatocellular carcinoma , medicine , interleukin 28b , pegylated interferon , hepatitis c virus , immunology , snp , hepatitis c , population , genome wide association study , gastroenterology , virology , biology , gene , virus , genotype , genetics , environmental health
Unfortunately Pakistan carries one of the world's highest burdens of chronic hepatitis along with mortality due to liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. Scientists after extensive research have come up with this outcome that host genetics play a vital role in dictating the type of treatment response produced by the patients. In 2009, a genome wide association study ( GWAS ) revealed that genetic variants in close proximity to the IL 28B ( IFNL 3) gene predicted greater likelihood of achieving sustained virological response ( SVR ) following treatment with pegylated IFN ‐alpha (peg INF ‐α) and ribavirin. IL 28B (rs12979860 and rs8099917) single nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNP s) have been recently found among the Pakistani population associated with response to chronic HCV infection INF ‐α + ribavirin therapy. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the IL ‐28B protein levels in the HCV infected patients. The findings showed that the serum IL 28B protein level was higher in HCV infected patients as compared to healthy controls (7.743 ± 1.519 pg/mL versus 1.600 ± 0.06054 [mean ± SEM ], p < 0.05). When the chronic hepatitis C ( CHC ) patients were further categorized into SVR and NR (non‐responders) on the basis of treatment outcomes, the mean IL 28B protein level was higher in NR s (15.54 ± 3.609) than SVR s (4.259 ± 0.3405). Thus, there was a significant correlation between IL 28B protein level in varied treatment response (p < 0.05). However, the findings can lead us to propose that IL 28B could be used as a prognostic marker. It can help the clinicians to take better pre‐informed decisions whether to take combinational therapy of peg IFN ± ribavirin or not. This will in turn prove beneficial for the patient by saving patients’ health, treatment cost and undesirable treatment side effects.