Interleukin 28B polymorphism predicts treatment outcome among Egyptian patients infected with HCV genotype 4

Background/ Aims: Egyptian patients with HCV genotype 4 respond less successfully to treatment with pegylated interferon regimen.The Aim of this study was to investigate the associations between IL-28B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and treatment outcome among them . METHODS: The HCV patients classified into (I) patients with sustained virological responders (SVRs) (N=87) &(II) Non responder patients (NRs) (N=135)where they were genotyped as CC, CT or TT at the polymorphic site rs12979860. RESULTS: The frequencies of the IL-28B genotypes were as follows:The proportions of rs12979860 CC, CT, and TT genotypes were 59.7%, 34.5%, and 5.8% among patients with SVR, versus 7.4 %, 50.37 % and 42.23 % among those with treatment failure (NRs) (P <0.001). By using univariate regression analysis, the minor allele of IL28B (p <0.0001), high serum level of HCV-RNA (p = 0.035) and advanced fibrosis (p = 0.02) were associated with (NRs)( Odds ratio =3.75 with 95% confidence interval (2.308 - 6.1067),. While, in multivariate logistic regression analysis, rs12979860 CC genotype was the strongest predictive of SVR (OR = 20.83, 95%CI = 11.63–37.04, p <0.0001). CONCLUSION: The IL28B rs12979860 SNP is the strongest predictor of an SVR among Egyptian patients infected with HCV -4.