The association between hepatic ISG expression, genetic variation in interleurin 28B and the outcome of interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C / Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Yousef Elfar ; Supervised Hanan Abdelhaleem Marzouk , Hanan Abdelhafez , Abdelrahman Zekri

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Tropical Medicine

Background: Chronic HCV is a worldwide health problem. Infection with HCV can activate the endogenous IFN system in the liver which leads to a strong induction of hundreds of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) in the liver with strong association between allelic variants of the IL28B genotype and response to interferon therapy. Objectives: We aimed at developing a new panel of surrogate biomarkers for prediction of the treatment response rate for patients with chronic HCV infection who will undergo treatment with interferon and ribavirin therapy and to help for good selection of patients who will respond better to the therapy. Patients and Methods: A total of 50 patients with chronic HCV related chronic liver disease, were prospectively enrolled in our cohort. They were subjected to: full history taking, laboratory study including HCV RNA by PCR prior, during and after the therapy, IL28B genotyping, abdominal ultrasound, liver biopsy and histological staging of hepatic fibrosis using the Ishak score and for intrahepatic ISG signaling pathway and expression with relation to the IL28b genotyping and the response rate to therapy. In addition to 20 healthy individuals who were enrolled as a control group. Results: There was statistically significant correlation between IL28B genotypes and the treatment response as the major allele (CC) genotype was associated with higher prevalence of response to treatment in comparison to the minor alleles CT and TT genotypes

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