New Biomarkers for Response to Treatment of HCV Infected Patients Based on IP-10 and IL 28B Polymorphism Analysis

Single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)rs12979860 near IL28B gene was shown to be highly predictive of sustained virological response (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Inducible protein 10 (IP-10) in CHC patients increases in non-responders. To assess the potential predictive value of pretreatment IP-10 levels and IL28 B genotype on the SVR in CHC Egyptian patients, eighty-seven patients were included in this study in addition to twenty control subjects. HCV viral load levels were assessed at 0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks, IL28B single nucleotide polymorphismrs1297860 was genotyped and serum IP-10 level were evaluated for each patient. Results have shown that the distribution of SNP was CC (28.1%), CT (43.6%) and TT (28.1%) with SVR 70%, 38.7%, 50% respectively, at cutoff value 342pg/ml for predicting SVR we achieved a sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 46%, respectively. In conclusion, pretreatment serum IP-10 level when added to IL28 genotype, the predictive value is greatly enhanced especially for CT and TT IL28 genotypes.