New Research Predicts Who Will Respond to Hepatisis C Treatment

In a paper title Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance published online in the Journal Nature researches report that they have identified a gene that predicts a response to treatment for Hepatitis C.

Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus affects 170 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of cirrhosis in North America.

Although the recommended treatment for chronic infection involves a 48-week course of peginterferon-alpha-2b (PegIFN-alpha-2b) or -alpha-2a (PegIFN-alpha-2a) combined with ribavirin (RBV), it is well known that many patients will not be cured by treatment, and that patients of European ancestry have a significantly higher probability of being cured than patients of African ancestry.

The researchers report that a genetic polymorphism near the IL28B gene, encoding interferon-lambda-3 (IFN-lambda-3), is associated with an approximately twofold change in response to treatment, both among patients of European ancestry (P = 1.06 times 10-25) and African-Americans (P = 2.06 times 10-3). Because the genotype leading to better response is in substantially greater frequency in European than African populations, this genetic polymorphism also explains approximately half of the difference in response rates between African-Americans and patients of European ancestry.

References:

1. Genetic test predicts who will respond to hepatitis C treatment, Aidsmap

2. Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance, Nature